Need for enhanced vessel identification and position reporting

Letter to the Australian Government UNICPOLOS delegation:

March 10, 2005

To: Philip Burgess, National Oceans Office, Canberra, Australia

Dear Philip

NEED FOR ENHANCED VESSEL IDENTIFICATION AND POSITION REPORTING

The Australian Oceans Office has informed me that I should put my views to you regarding Australia's position at the approaching UNICPOLOS meeting in June.  I am writing a second email to you regarding measures to curtail destructive fishing practices, and you will receive this separately.

When the Law of the Sea was first discussed and drafted, customs and protocols had established themselves through common usage and international agreements to provide mechanisms ensuring that vessels on the high seas nevertheless remained under the laws of the nations to which those vessels were affiliated.  The Law of the Sea consolidated the meaning and importance of flag states, and vessel identification is achieved under the Law of the Sea by the vessel's flag.

We live in a world today which is very different to the world as it was in 1984.  None of the originators of the Law of the Sea could have foreseen either the advances in technology which enable satellite tracking of vessels, or the major problems caused by overfishing and destructive fishing practices.  Neither were the problems of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing foreseen, which are now so severe as to not only threaten the viability of important commercial fisheries, but to threaten the very existence of species and ecosystems.  The continuance of IUU fishing at current scales is such as to also undermine the rule of law, not only on the high seas, but in national Exclusive Economic Zones.

The severity of the problems caused by IUU fishing need no further discussion here, nor the intractability of the issues surrounding enforcing compliance with fishing agreements -  except to say that monitoring vessel position, identification and activity at the moment presents major technical problems which are greatly hindering compliance efforts by both nation-states and regional fisheries organisations.  If further information on the severity of these problems is needed it may be obtained from the Food and Agriculture Organisation website (www.fao.org). 

I request that the Australian delegation to UNICPOLOS:

- Call on the United Nations to amend the Law of the Sea so as to require all commercial vessels over a designated tonnage to carry and operate satellite-enabled vessel tracking and identification, supplementing the use of flags.

- Such identification devices should report the vessel name and position in real time to a shared global vessel tracking and reporting system, so as to enable authorised agents of any nation to immediately identify and locate any vessel operating either on the high seas or within marine waters under national jurisdiction. 

I believe that the use of such identification and tracking systems is long overdue, and, while following the logic and principles of the Law of the Sea, brings this important piece of international law up to date.  Given the extreme difficulties posed by IUU vessels relating to compliance with both global and regional fishing agreements (not to mention issues surrounding the illegal transport of products, wastes and people) such a system is probably the single most urgent step needed to facilitate enhanced compliance with laws and agreements necessary to ensure the sustainable use of our oceans.

Regards

Jon Nevill
 Mobile 0422 926 515, or +61 4 2292 6515
Postal address: PO Box 106 Hampton 3188 Australia
www.onlyoneplanet.com.au

 

 

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