As usual, at this time of the year before the Technical and Compliance Committee, we get very good reports from the WCPFC secretariat.
One of the most frustrating for me to read is this one. Particularly when I just had a go a couple of weeks ago at this in terms of HS transhipments observers.
I wrote ad nausea of the impracticability exemption and how much has been abused… this does not change, unfortunately
Impracticability bullshit…As you can see most of the transipmemnts in the HS take place just out of the EEZ pure hypocressy by the transhipping nations
The report is there to read and free to download from the commission webpage. I just will quote some of the things that strike the most.
In 2021, 62 % of vessels from 9 CCMs were listed on the RFV as authorised to tranship in the high seas, 85% of which are longliners.
The 1,007 transhipment events reported to WCPFC in 2021 is 87% of the transhipments in 2020 and 69% of the transhipments in 2018/2019
The Commission intersessional decisions also suspended the requirement to have an observer on board either the carrier or the fishing vessel to observe transhipments from 27 May 2020 to 15 June but with a transitional period from 15 June – 31 December 2022 during which time CCMs should make best efforts to embark observers following agreed guidelines. In 2021, the level of unobserved transhipments increased to 88% in 2021.
Bigeye and yellowfin tuna make up the bulk of species transhipped, representing, respectively, 34% and 28% of the 2021 provisional longline catch.
the usual supects
Information on the location and species mix of transhipments shows distinct changes over the last 6 years, with transhipments now more focused in the central and east Pacific.
Comparison of transhipment locations with catch per unit effort data indicates a potential relationship with higher areas of bigeye effort.
There were no new cases of alleged violations of Compliance CMM2009-06 in 2021 or 2022.
Secretariat analytical processes to identify possible issues with reporting of transhipments e.g. comparisons across datasets, are proving useful but resource constraints in 2020 and 2021 have limited further refinement.
The main species transhipped in 2021 was bigeye and albacore which represented 34.3 % and 27.5% of the provisional longline catch estimates for that year. In 2020, these species represented 31% of the catch.
