South Korea Removed from List of Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated Fishing Countries

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said on Feb. 10 that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce has taken off Korea from the list of countries potentially engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. 

Back in Jan. 2013, the NOAA included Korea on the list, mentioning the Korean government’s inadequate restrictions on Korean vessels’ illegal fishing in the Antarctic. 

After the designation, the Korean government revised the Ocean Industry Development Act to prevent the ban on the export of Korean marine products to the United States, worth approximately US$200 million a year, and on the use of American ports by Korean ships. At the same time, it had ships install vessel monitoring systems, ran fisheries monitoring centers, and had five rounds of talks with the U.S. government. 

The Ministry is expecting that the cancellation of the designation at this time will lead to a similar action in the European Union. The E.U. followed the example of the U.S. in Jan. 2013 because of Korean vessels illegally fishing off the coast of West Africa, and the lack of systems for punishment.