The coalition, which calls for increased transparency at sea and seafood supply chains free of illegal practices, welcomes feedback until October 31, 2022.

Location: Washington, DC

Contact: Gillian Spolarich, gspolarich@oceana.org

Anna Baxter, abaxter@oceana.org

Emily Porterfield, eporterfield@oceana.org

Today, the Global Fisheries Transparency Coalition, a new global community of ocean advocates campaigning for increased transparency at sea, released its draft Global Charter for public comment. The ten principles, which address the lack of transparency in vessel information, fishing activity, and fisheries governance and management, pinpoint the most essential transparency priorities needed to increase equity in fisheries and combat illegal fishing and human rights abuses at sea.

Leading the Coalition is a steering committee of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including Oceana, the Environmental Justice Foundation, Citizens Institute of Environmental Studies (Korea), Global Fishing Watch, the Regional Partnership for Coastal and Marine Conservation (West Africa), Seafood Legacy (Japan), and the WWF Network. The Coalition serves as an international platform and voice for civil society to improve transparency and accountability in marine governance by developing joint strategies and harmonizing efforts in key countries and global regions.

The Global Charter for Transparency underpins the work of the Coalition with a unifying set of principles and a clear call to governments. Broad input from diverse voices on the Charter is essential to producing principles that are both effective and equitable for all involved in fisheries governance. Comments are sought from all relevant stakeholders – not only civil society groups but also governments, industry, academics and other informed observers of trends in global fisheries governance. The Coalition welcomes comments until October 31, 2022, and will thoughtfully review all submissions. The public consultation form to input comments can be found below in multiple languages.

● English – https://forms.gle/SAXq68oZbiBw...

● Spanish – https://forms.gle/uao8PpHSeNRp...

● French – https://forms.gle/ihoNZn7cWNDC...

● Traditional Chinese – https://forms.gle/iV5wEMVw2tts...

● Simplified Chinese – https://forms.gle/cZ2DPXYpk2Zv...

The work of the Global Fisheries Transparency Coalition is made possible thanks to the generous support of Bloomberg Philanthropies, Oceans 5, and Oceankind.

Background

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is one of the greatest challenges facing our ocean today. IUU fishing depletes fish populations, destroys marine habitats, and threatens the livelihoods of an estimated 260 million people and many global fisheries; the best weapon we have to fight the cycle is transparency. Without transparency, there is no accountability.