U.S. CODE

U.S. Code

§ 1826i. Action to strengthen international fishery management organizations

The Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of State, and in cooperation with relevant fishery management councils and any relevant advisory committees, shall take actions to improve the effectiveness of international fishery management organizations in conserving and managing fish stocks under their jurisdiction. These actions shall include—

(1) urging international fishery management organizations to which the United States is a member—

(A) to incorporate multilateral market-related measures against member or nonmember governments whose vessels engage in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing;

(B) to seek adoption of lists that identify fishing vessels and vessel owners engaged in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing that can be shared among all members and other international fishery management organizations;

(C) to seek international adoption of a centralized vessel monitoring system in order to monitor and document capacity in fleets of all nations involved in fishing in areas under an international fishery management organization’s jurisdiction;

(D) to increase use of observers and technologies needed to monitor compliance with conservation and management measures established by the organization, including vessel monitoring systems and automatic identification systems; and

(E) to seek adoption of stronger port state controls in all nations, particularly those nations in whose ports vessels engaged in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing land or transship fish;

(2) urging international fishery management organizations to which the United States is a member, as well as all members of those organizations, to adopt and expand the use of market-related measures to combat illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing, including—

(A) import prohibitions, landing restrictions, or other market-based measures needed to enforce compliance with international fishery management organization measures, such as quotas and catch limits;

(B) import restrictions or other market-based measures to prevent the trade or importation of fish caught by vessels identified multilaterally as engaging in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing; and

(C) catch documentation and certification schemes to improve tracking and identification of catch of vessels engaged in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing, including advance transmission of catch documents to ports of entry; and

(3) urging other nations at bilateral, regional, and international levels, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora and the World Trade Organization to take all steps necessary, consistent with international law, to adopt measures and policies that will prevent fish or other living marine resources harvested by vessels engaged in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing from being traded or imported into their nation or territories.

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