Report of the FIRST MEETING OF THE PARTIES TO THE AGREEMENT ON PORT STATE MEASURES TO PREVENT, DETER AND ELIMINATE ILLEGAL, UNREPORTED AND UNREGULATED FISHING

Book excerpt: This document contains the report of the first meeting of the Parties to the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing held in Oslo, Norway, from 29 to 31 May 2017. The Parties agreed that FAO assumes the role of Secretariat for the meeting. The need for concerted action by port States, flag States and other States in the implementation of the Agreement, together with the important role of FAO, regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) and other international organizations and bodies, was recognized. The Parties noted the value of drawing lessons from existing relevant initiatives of RFMOs and other international organizations. The Parties agreed that a staged approach should be adopted with regards to data exchange and called for the establishment of an open-ended technical working group to provide guidance on the development of data exchange mechanisms. FAO was tasked with developing templates for reporting of information on national contact points, designated ports and other relevant information for the implementation of the Agreement, and to publish the information through a dedicated section within the FAO website. The Parties established the Working Group under Part 6 of the Agreement and its terms of reference were adopted. The Parties called upon the Secretariat to develop a specific web-based questionnaire for the purpose of monitoring implementation of the Agreement, as well as recording challenges faced, which is to be completed every two years initially. The Secretariat was also requested to prepare draft Rules of Procedure for meetings of the Parties and any subsidiary working groups based on the General Rules of the FAO, and relevant rules of the Committee on Fisheries, for consideration at the next meeting of the Parties. The Parties agreed to hold meetings every two years along with supplementary technical meetings as required.