Inter-agency cooperation and intelligence-led fisheries port controls in Liberia
On 2-3 May 2024, a national multi-agency workshop on combating IUU fishing took place in Monrovia, Liberia under the aegis of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA).
The workshop, which focused on the implementation of the FAO Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), was held back-to-back with the annual meeting of the inter-agency National Working Group (NWG) on 1 May, the mechanism to foster and sustain cooperation between national agencies in the fight against IUU fishing generally.
Both the NWG meeting and PSMA workshop, were attended by representatives from NaFAA, Liberia Coast Guard, Liberia Immigration Service, Liberia Police Service, National Port Authority, Liberia Maritime Authority, Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Defence.
The meetings were technically assisted and facilitated by a technical team from TMT, Global Fishing Watch (GFW), and the FCWC. Representatives from Environmental Justice Foundation and MRAG also participated as observers for all three days.
Liberia recently joined the joint TMT-GFW programme “Intelligence-led Fisheries Port Controls” which aims to support the practical implementation of the PSMA through a risk-based approach and the use of new tools. As a new country in the programme, Liberian authorities provided an overview of national PSMA implementation status and challenges (from the legal, institutional and operational points of view), which will contribute to the programme’s new baseline and allow for the development of support activities.
This also allowed the technical team to get a better understanding of previous and ongoing supports received by Liberia (including through FAO) on PSMA implementation, to ensure complementarity between support areas.
Among the tools Liberia will benefit from under this programme is the PSMA Port Profile – a 3-tear analysis of port activity which will enable national authorities to increase their knowledge and understanding of the types of fisheries vessels calling into their ports and the operations they conduct before their port calls. The aim is to identify IUU risks to which Liberia’s PSMA designated port Monrovia is exposed and improve the targeting of vessels for inspection.
The PSMA workshop included an introductory training session on Vessel Viewer, a mobile application developed by GFW and TMT aimed at providing relevant personnel with the most up-to-date information on a fishing vessel’s identity and operations.
Vessel Viewer was presented to inspectors and the fisheries monitoring centre as one of the tools that can be used in the risk assessment of AREPs (Advance Request for Entry to Port) submitted by vessels.
The National Working Group meeting considered various key issues, most notably the final technical input on a draft memorandum of understanding (MOU) on interagency cooperation, which was submitted to superiors in each relevant agency for signature. The MOU will, among other things, formalise and standardise cooperation on the implementation of the PSMA in Liberia.
Source : TMT
