voa常速英语材料

voa常速英语材料

Joe DeCapua

July 31,2020

It’s estimated that illicit fishing accounts for up 26 million tons of seafood a year and costs the global economy as much as 26 billion dollars annually. An international agreement to help curb the problem is gaining support, but still needs more backers before it can take effect.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing – or IUU –not only causes economic damage, but is a threat to food security and biodiversity.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says IUU encompasses fishing without authorization, harvesting protected species, using outlawed fishing gear and violating quota limits. It accounts for over 15 percent of the global seafood take.

Lankan fishermen stand on a fishing vessel as it leaves a fishery harbor in Negombo, Negombo, outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, Oct.15, 2020. In its fight against illegal fishing activities worldwide, the European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki, on Tuesday announced a ban of imports of fisheries products from Sri Lanka to tackle the commercial benefits stemming from illegal fishing.(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Lankan fishermen stand on a fishing vessel as it leaves a fishery harbor in Negombo, Negombo, outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, Oct.15, 2020. In its fight against illegal

fishing activities worldwide, the European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki, on Tuesday announced a ban of imports of fisheries products from Sri Lanka to tackle the commercial benefits stemming from illegal fishing.(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Dr. Matthew Camilleri, of the FAO’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy and Economics Division in Rome, said the problem ranges from big fishing vessels on the high seas to small-scale coastal operations.

“Illegal fishing could be that vessels are fishing in areas where fishing is prohibited because there are fragile ecosystems, which can be affected by fishing activities – or fishing is taking place using fishing gear which is

prohibited or the dimensions of the gear are not in line with the regulations that have been set. So, hook sizes may be too small or mesh sizes may be too small, for example.”

He said unreported and under-reported fishing are also widespread.

“Fishing vessels just fail to repor t on their catches through log books, for example or through electronic systems that are in place. Or they are not reporting on their actual location. So, there are many kinds of infringements that

could be associated with illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.”

Camilleri said the illicit practices endanger fish stocks.

“When we say endangered, not in the sense of endangered as being on the verge of extinction, but endangered in the sense that there are stocks which could be over fished. This