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Legal Fishers Endorse IUU List


The Coalition of Legal Tootfish Operators, has posted the Trygg Mat Combined IUU vessel list on their website.

COLTO was formed by the legal toothfish industry to eliminate toothfish poaching. The coalition has a long history of collaboration with governments, NGOs, industry and the Regional Fisheries Management Organisation for the Southern Oceans; CCAMLR.

Toothfish poaching has gone in waves. Some of the first to develop it were Norwegian long line vessel operators. (See FoE Norway toothfish_report_1997_english). In the late 1990′ies the first wave of poachers slowed down as ISOFISH, a coalition of NGOs, government and industry formed in 1997 and CCAMLR continued to present documentation on the owners, their nationalities and the trade routes for the product.

Colto was established after ISOFISH had decided that sufficient profiling and assistance had been given to authorities to enable effective control over toothfish IUU fishing. According to COLTO, the lack of an industry/conservation group “watchdog” saw increased activities by new, more highly organised, IUU operators.

At the moment four poachers and one transport vessel are actively poaching for toothfish. All of them are on the IUU vessel list. At the peak, between 50 and 60 vessels were illegally fishing for toothfish in CCAMLR waters, according to COLTO,


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