The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Heraldo Muñoz – in company of the deputy Minister of National Defense, Marcos Robledo and the deputy Vice-Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture – announced this morning Chile’s accession to the “United Nations Agreement on Straddling Fish Stock and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, New York, 1995.” He also announced the strengthening of the policy of Combatting Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing.
“Environmental matters have great relevance in President Bachelet’s program and in the international arena we are making progress in major issues and working in that regard, identifying foreign policy actions focused on the conservation of oceans aimed at a sustainable use thereof”, said the Foreign Minister.
Chile’s accession to the New York convention on monitoring, control and surveillance provide greater inspecting powers on the high seas, which will give our enforcement services such as the Chilean Navy better tools to undertake these actions.
The main goal of this agreement is to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of straddling fish stocks (jack mackerel) and highly migratory fish stocks (tuna, swordfish and others)
It will also ensure effective protection of fisheries resources and marine ecosystems located on jurisdictional waters of oceanic islands of our country: Easter Island, Sala y Gómez, Juan Fernández, Islas Desventuradas (San Ambrosio& San Félix) and off shore areas adjacent to our Economic Exclusive Zone.
This commitment results from the consensus achieved within the Sectorial Working Group coordinated by the Foreign Ministry and counts on the cross support of all stakeholders concerned. This should be reflected in the legislative procedure when this bill is submitted to Congress presumably this year.
Thus, the Minister announced the implementation of a new policy of combatting Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing under the coordination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the National Working Group composed of the Under-Secretariat for Fisheries and Aquaculture, the National Fisheries Service, the Directorate General for the Maritime Territory and Merchant Shipping (DIRECTEMAR for its Spanish acronym) and the Defense Under-Secretariat.
This new policy is mainly intended to be an updated tool for combatting illegal fishing. It is also an instrument that will strengthen the efforts of conservation and sustainable use of the Pacific Ocean.
The announcement of these commitments was made on the verge of next participation of Chile in the Conference “Our Ocean”, organized by the US State Department, to be held in Washington, on June 16 to 17, the main purpose of which is the creation of a “world movement” to protect the marine environment.
Chile will be the only country in the region to participate in this conference to be attended by the United States, Norway, Republic of Togo and Indonesia and more than 400 representatives from government, scientists, diplomats members of the civil society and other sectorial representatives.
La entrada Minister Muñoz announces Chile’s accession to international fisheries agreement and the implementation of new Chilean policy against illegal fishing aparece primero en Nuestro Océano 2015.