Illegal Fishing

The US is one of the largest seafood markets for imported seafood—importing more than 5.3 billion pounds of seafood per year—worth almost $18 billion annually. Unfortunately, there is a problem with the seafood that hits our plates. Right now we simply cannot tell if the fish we eat was legally caught because our current laws are not strong enough to trace from bait to plate.

But there is great momentum for change. In December 2016, the US government officially established the Seafood Import Monitoring Program to address illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing products entering the market. The new rule, in effect as of Jan. 1, 2018, sets up reporting and record-keeping requirements for certain seafood products to prevent IUU-caught and/or misrepresented seafood from entering US commerce. This first phase of the program applies to an initial list of imported fish and fish products identified as particularly vulnerable to illegal fishing and fraud.

With its influence in the market place the US can lead the global IUU fishing challenge by requiring the entire supply chain is fully traceable to legal sources. This will improve practices around the globe by those who hope to access the US market.