India, Singapore organise East Asia Summit workshop on illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing

The workshop was attended by eight EAS member countries, four knowledge partners, officials of the Department of Fisheries

Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India and the Government of Singapore organised a virtual East Asia Summit (EAS) Workshop on Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing yesterday co-chaired by India and Singapore Food Agency (SFA). Jatindra Nath Swain, Secretary, Department of Fisheries (DoF), Government of India gave the keynote address. The workshop was attended by eight EAS member countries, four knowledge partners, officials of the Department of Fisheries, the Government of India, Fisheries officials of different States/UTs and other invitees.

In his inaugural address, Swain highlighted the urgent call for combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Swain shared some of India’s efforts and initiatives to combat IUU fishing especially through working with coastal fishing communities.

The workshop began with the opening session led by India and chaired by Joint Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Government of India, Dr J Balaji. During the welcome address, Dr J Balaji introduced the theme of the workshop and welcomed all the esteemed delegates, panellists and participants in the Workshop from the countries of Australia, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea along with India and Singapore. In his opening remarks to the EAS IUU Workshop, the CEO of the Singapore Food Agency highlighted the importance of combating IUU fishing which has negatively impacted the livelihood and food security of the coastal fishing communities.

Technical Session 1 focussed on regional collaborations in combating IUU fishing and was Chaired by Singapore Food Agency. The knowledge partners, namely, the Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organization (BOBPIGO), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shared the regional efforts and the groundbreaking and continuous efforts being taken to combat IUU fishing. During Technical Session 2, representatives from each participating country shared their national success stories, experience gained and measures being taken up by the respective country to curb IUU fishing.

After sessions and discussions, the webinar concluded with closing remarks by Geetika Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, GoI.

The workshop was attended by eight EAS