India and Singapore Organises East Asia Summit Workshop on Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing

· Australia, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, New Zealand, Republic of Korea Attend the Event

· India calls for Combating Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing by Working with Coastal Fishing Communities

· Participants Share National Success Stories and Measures taken to Combat IUU Fishing

Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India and the Government of Singapore organized 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 key note address. The workshop was attended by 8 EAS member countries, and 4 knowledge partners, officials of Department of Fisheries, Government of India, Fisheries officials of different States/UTs and other invitees.

In his inaugural address, Shri Swain highlighted the urgent call for combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Mr. 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, panelists and participants in the Workshop from the countries of Australia, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, New Zealand, 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.

The Technical Session 1 was focused 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 the Technical Session 2, representative 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 Ms. Geetika Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, GoI.