European Union
Last updated 21/05/10
Key Data
Port visits by
*Port visits of vessels IUU-listed by RFMOs the country is a CP of at the time of port visit
**Port visits of vessels IUU-listed by RFMOs the country is not CP of at the time of port visit
Overview
Port Visits - Summary
Agreements and RFMO Memberships
Ratified international agreements (binding)
| UNCLOS | Yes |
|---|---|
| UNFSA | Yes |
| FAO Compliance Agreement | Yes |
Non-binding international agreements
| NPOA - IUU | Yes |
|---|
Membership of key high seas RFMOs
| RFMO | Date Joined |
|---|---|
| CCAMLR | 23 May 82 |
| CCSBT | 13 Oct 06 |
| GFCM | 25 Jun 98 |
| IATTC | Jun 04 |
| ICCAT | 14 Nov 97 |
| IOTC | 27 Oct 95 |
| NAFO | 28 Dec 78 |
| NEAFC | 18 Sep 81 |
| SEAFO | 08 Aug 02 |
| WCPFC | 20 Jan 05 |
Legend
| Member | Co-operating Non-member | Non-member |
Results
Information from the publicly available online databases maintained by Lloyd’s Register—Fairplay (SeaWeb), Lloyd’s MIU and Shipspotting.com, as well as information provided by the European Union Member States, shows 97 port visits by 19 NEAFC/NAFO/SEAFO, one ICCAT or 4 CCAMLR IUU-listed vessels to ports in 15 Member States. Of the 97 port visits that were made by IUU-listed vessels in the research period from January 2004 to December 2009, five were made to Denmark, five to Estonia, two to France (including one to the overseas department Réunion), 16 to Germany, two to Greece, one to Ireland, five to Latvia, eight to Lithuania, four to Malta, five to the Netherlands, four to Poland, four to Portugal, 33 to Spain, one to Sweden and 2 to the UK. The European Union is a CP to CCAMLR, ICCAT, IOTC, NEAFC, NAFO, SEAFO, WCPFC and GFCM and a Cooperating Non-CP of CCSBT and IATTC.
We consider 50 of these 97 port visits as potential violations of port State measures of NEAFC, NAFO, SEAFO and CCAMLR, which require the respective CP to deny port access and/or landing and transshipment in port and/or access to port services to vessels listed on NEAFC/NAFO/SEAFO or CCAMLR IUU-vessel lists. In total, there were 32 violations of RFMOs port State measures which the EU is obliged to implement. Of the 97 visits to EU ports, 18 were followed by port State actions: six in Germany, five in Spain, four in Lithuania, one in the Netherlands, one in Portugal and one in Estonia.
During the research period, we asked countries with more than four port visits for information on the approaches they adopted on port access by RFMO IUU-listed vessels, and on any visit made by those vessels in recent years to their ports. Among the Member States that received our letters, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and Spain sent detailed information; Denmark and the Netherlands sent short replies; no response has been received from Malta. Five visits to the Latvian port of Liepaja were made by five IUU-listed vessels for scrap as a consequence of a port State action; we informed Latvia of the findings of our research but requested no further information.