Workshop on sea, fisheries law held

National

The National Fisheries Authority (NFA) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation held a workshop this week on international law of the sea and fisheries law.
The workshop was held at the request of inspectors, observers, compliance officers and legal and policy officers who attended an earlier workshop in East New Britain on the implementation of port state measures to prevent, deter and eliminate illicit fishing.
Participants learned from FAO experts about maritime areas over which PNG exercises sovereignty such as archipelagic waters and territorial sea and where PNG exercises sovereign rights including the management of fisheries, especially in its exclusive economic zone.
Ken Shimizu, resident FAO representative in PNG, said knowledge of these jurisdictional areas and the international law of the sea and fisheries law would enable participants to better appreciate the legal basis of their roles and the rights and responsibilities of PNG in relation to the management of its vast and valuable fisheries resources and the enforcement of PNG’s fisheries laws.
Shimizu was pleased having FAO assist NFA in providing the training at the request of the Government of PNG.
He was also hopeful that such training would enable NFA and PNG in their efforts to stem illegal fishing activities in PNG waters.
NFA managing director John Kasu thanked FAO for its assistance in providing the training and acknowledged NFA’s partnership with FAO, in particular the collaboration FAO and NFA have established under a FAO-funded technical cooperation project for minimising the risk of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in PNG.
“This partnership and the training activities carried out under such partnership will contribute to enhance PNG’s capacity to protect its fish resources and will ensure that fish originating from its waters or by PNG flagged vessels are legally caught fish which can enter markets such as the European Union,” he said.
The two-day international and fisheries law workshop held in Port Moresby this week is part of the initiative of NFA with the support of the FAO to review the fisheries law of PNG to identify its strength and weakness and to identify ways in which the national law can be strengthened.
A review of the national fisheries law is expected to be completed early next year.