Regional efforts commence fortifying response to fisheries crimes

The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and the Caribbean Community Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (Caricom IMPACS) this week hosted a technical meeting on Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and organised crime in the fishing industry.
It marked an important milestone in the region’s efforts to fortify the region’s response to this challenging and costly problem, through coordinated action at both the national and regional levels, with the support of the Government of Norway and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the Blue Justice Initiative.
The CRFM, its Member States, and partner agencies both at the Caricom and international levels committed to advancing their collaboration using modern digital technology, to strengthen the region’s response to illegal fishing and transnational organised criminal activities, such as drugs, human and small arms trafficking, trade in contraband goods, document fraud and forgery, tax crimes, and money laundering, which use commercial and recreational fishing as a cover for their activities.
Last October, during a high-level meeting of CRFM Ministers, 12 Member States signed the International Declaration on Transnational Organised Crime in the Global Fishing Industry (also known as the Copenhagen Declaration). They also endorsed the Blue Justice Initiative, which supports developing countries in operationalising the Copenhagen Declaration, aimed at “promoting a sustainable and fair Blue Economy for all, that is free from fisheries crime”.
The CRFM and Caricom IMPACS convened the technical meeting of senior fisheries and maritime law enforcement officers to identify priority actions to strengthen regional and international cooperation to combat and eradicate IUU fishing and transnational organised crime in the fisheries sector.
Over 90 participants from 15 Member States of the CRFM and representatives of the Caricom Secretariat, the CRFM, Caricom IMPACS, the Regional Security System (RSS), UNDP and the Government of Norway participated in the virtual session.
The meeting featured a diverse array of speakers who provided participants with insights on the Blue Justice Initiative and Copenhagen Declaration, the UNDP Blue Resilience Project and its use of digital technology and institutional cooperation, tools and techniques to detect and analyse fisheries crime, and a general overview of fisheries crime in the Caribbean. Participants engaged in interactive sessions, as they contributed to charting the way forward.
In addressing the gathering, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry and Labour, and Chair of the Ministerial Council of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism, Saboto Caesar said, “The fight globally has increased against IUU fishing and organised crime, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Member States of the CRFM continue to honour our duty… It is our quest in the Caribbean to partner with all international agencies to ensure that we reduce criminal activities when it comes to the Blue Economy. We intend to work with regional and international partners and other friendly governments such as Norway… because every Member State in the global community must play an important role.”
Guyanese fishermen have been, in the past, victims of crimes that are most often linked to piracy.
In March 2021, a group of Essequibo Coast, Region Two fishermen were attacked in the Waini River, Region One (Barima-Waini) by pirates. The incident occurred at Kamwatta, Waini River, in the North West District and according to Police, the men were robbed of food, fuel, cellular phones and about $100,000 in fish, late Wednesday night.
A couple of months prior, a fishing expedition by a four-man crew along the Waini River turned into a horror story after the men were attacked by pirates.
At the time there were five men, two of whom were armed with “long guns”; the suspects were clad in “what appeared to be military uniforms” and they were speaking a foreign language. Police stated that the pirates then took control of the vessel and forced the crew to the bow, where they remained for some 24 hours.