2012 Cape Town Agreement to enhance fishing safety

The 2012 Cape Town Agreement is an internationally-binding instrument that sets minimum requirements on the design, construction, equipment, and inspection of fishing vessels of 24 meters in length and over or equivalent in gross tons. The Agreement includes mandatory international requirements for stability and associated seaworthiness, machinery and electrical installations, life-saving appliances, communications equipment and fire protection, as well as fishing vessel construction. For more a more detailed explanation about the 2012 Cape Town Agreement, click here.

The treaty will enter into force 12 months after at least 22 States, with an aggregate 3,600 fishing vessels of 24 m in length and over operating on the high seas have expressed their consent to be bound by it. 

At present there are 22 contracting Member States to the CTA : Belgium, Belize, Congo, Cook Islands, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Kenya, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa and Spain. 

As with other international treaty instruments, the Cape Town Agreement needs to be ratified and implemented. Different countries have different processes for doing this. They may need to look at existing regulations for fishing vessels, if any, and see whether they need to be adapted or updated. 

IMO can assist with technical and legal training and support, through its technical cooperation programme. The Implementation Guidelines on Part B of the Code, the Voluntary Guidelines and the Safety Recommendations could be useful for States implementing the provisions of the 2012 Cape Town Agreement, although the main purpose of these Guidelines is to assist competent authorities in the implementation of voluntary instruments.

International treaties such as the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) have been in force for any decades for commercial shipping, including cargo and passenger ships. SOLAS includes a number of regulations which are applicable to all ships, such as its SOLAS chapter V, on safety of navigation. However, many other SOLAS regulations provide an exemption for fishing vessels.

Unlike other merchant ships, which load cargo in a port and then carry it to unload at another port, fishing vessels set out to sea unladen, catch fish and sail back to port with their catch of fish. Some larger trawlers and factory ships freeze, process and tin fish, out at sea.

IMO has been working to address fishing vessel safety for many decades. In collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), IMO has developed and revised a series of non-mandatory instruments which address the design, construction and equipment of fishing vessels, including:

• Code of Safety for Fishermen and Fishing Vessels, 2005;

• Revised Voluntary Guidelines for the design, construction and equipment of small fishing vessels, 2005;

• Safety recommendations for decked fishing vessels of less than 12 metres in length and undecked fishing vessels; and

• Implementation Guidelines on Part B of the Code, the Voluntary Guidelines and the Safety Recommendations (Implementation Guidelines).

In 1977, IMO adopted the Torremolinos International Convention for the Safety of Fishing Vessels, which was later modified by the 1993 Torremolinos Protocol. As both of these treaties had failed to come into force, IMO later adopted the 2012 Cape Town Agreement, to bring into effect the provisions of the earlier treaties.

The Cape Town Agreement includes mandatory international requirements for stability, construction and associated seaworthiness of fishing vessels of 24 metres in length and over, as well as requirements for life-saving appliances, communications equipment and fire protection.

It should be noted that IMO's MARPOL regulations for the prevention of pollution from ships do apply to fishing vessels, including regulations for the prevention of pollution by garbage from ships, which prohibit the discharge of garbage and operational waste, including Annex V discharge requirements 07-2013.pdf, into the sea.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing refers to fishing which is carried out without proper authorization. This can undermine national, regional and global efforts to conserve and manage fish stocks. IUU fishing affects about 20 per cent of the global fish yields and IUU fishing costs the industry about $US23 billion a year in lost incomes.

Fishing vessels used in IUU fishing may have been authorized to fly a specific flag, but may be evading proper flag State control. Supervision and control of these vessels may be lacking. There may also be incidents of fishing vessels with fraudulent certificates. Port and coastal State control may not be sufficient to monitor and control these vessels.

Vessels being used for IUU fishing are likely to lack basic safety equipment and pose a risk to fishers – who may be poorly paid or even enslaved.

FAO says that Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is a broad term, which includes:

The Pew Charitable Trusts says that IUU fishing can include failing to report catch, using illegal gear, fishing without licenses, and even painting new names on vessels while at sea to avoid detection by authorities. This activity cheats coastal communities out of food and income, skews scientific stock assessments, undermines law-abiding fishers, and deceives consumers who trust that the fish they purchase was caught within the law. Illegal fishing is a major threat to the sustainability of the world's fisheries.

For cargo and passenger ships, the four pillars for safety, environmental protection and seafarers' training and rights are said to be IMO's SOLAS, MARPOL and STCW treaties; alongside ILO's Maritime Labour Convention (MLC 2006). All these instruments are in force.

For fishing and fishers, the four pillars are:

1. IMO's 2012 Cape Town Agreement (not yet in force)
2. IMO's STCW-F Convention on training of fishers – it entered into force in 2012.
3. ILO's Work in Fishing Convention 2007 (Convention No. 188) entered into force on 16 November 2017. It sets minimum requirements for work on board including hours of rest, food, minimum age and repatriation.
4. FAO's Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (PSMA), 2009, which entered into force in 2016. It seeks to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing through the adoption and implementation of effective port State measures.
   

Yes. Identifying and tracking fishing vessels and being able to establish their ownership is an important part of ongoing work to tackle IUU fishing.

In 2017, the IMO Assembly agreed to extend the IMO Ship Identification Number Scheme to more vessels, on a voluntary basis, to support ship safety and pollution prevention by being able to more easily identify vessels.

The number scheme applies to ships over 100 gross tonnage and is mandatory for passenger ships of 100 gross tonnage and upwards and all cargo ships of 300 gross tonnage and upwards. In 2013, the IMO Assembly agreed to the voluntary extension of the scheme to fishing vessels over 100 gross tonnage. In 2017, the IMO Assembly agreed to further extend voluntary application to fishing vessels of steel and non-steel hull construction; passenger ships of less than 100 gross tonnage, high-speed passenger craft and mobile drilling units, engaged on international voyages; and to all motorized inboard fishing vessels of less than 100 gross tonnage down to a size limit of 12 metres in length overall authorized to operate outside waters under national jurisdiction of the flag State.

The IMO Secretariat continues to participate in the working group of the FAO's Global Record of Fishing Vessels, Refrigerated Transport Vessels and Supply Vessel. This is a phased and collaborative global initiative to make available, in a rapid way, certified data from State authorities about vessels and vessel-related activities.

IMO works with IHS Maritime & Trade for the allocation of the IMO Ship Identification Number. The current vessel database contains about 24,000 fishing vessels, fishing research vessels, fishing survey vessels, fish carriers, fishery support ships, fish factory ships and fish farm ships.