St. Kitts and Nevis Seeks Membership of North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission
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Kjartan Hoydal-Secretary NEAFC
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Director of St. Kitts and Nevis Maritime Affairs McClean Hobson and Nigel Smith, Registrar of ships are currently in London attending the 58th session of the International Maritime Organization. The duo met with Kjartan Hoydal, Secretary of the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission in London on Tuesday June 10, 2008 to explore the possibilities of St. Kitts and Nevis becoming a member of the said commission.
This comes on the heel of the successful showcasing of St.Kitts and Nevis’ Ship Registry, Tourism products and Financial Services sector at the Posidonia Greece Shipping Exhibition June 2-6, 2008.
According to Hoydal, “St. Kitts and Nevis can become a cooperative non-contracting party provided all the requirements for this status are met. This would allow St.Kitts and Nevis flag vessels to transport fish from the larger fish factory vessels without actually being directly involved in fishing”.
Following the meeting, Hobson indicated that, “This is certainly a significant break-through for the registry as we have stayed away
from the registration of foreign-owned fisheries for quite some time.
While this is happening, other jurisdictions are getting ahead of the competition registering fishing vessels. They are using the latest technology to control and monitor the activities of those vessels. With a good monitoring system supported by up-to-date fishing legislation, there is no reason for St. Kitts and Nevis to stay away from registering foreign-owned fishing vessels.”
Hobson said that recent years have seen increased fishing activity and the NEAFC-organised in 1982, has become responsible for managing several stocks in the Convention area. In 1998, the current Contracting Parties agreed to strengthen it by establishing an independent Secretariat in London.
~~Adz:Left~~ Agreement was reached upon a new Scheme on Control and Enforcement to be applied to waters outside national jurisdiction. This permits the mutual inspection of Contracting Party vessels. Contracting Parties are also required to notify the Secretariat of vessels authorised to fish in international waters and report catches taken. The scheme was implemented on July 1st, 1999 and has been successively amended in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
NEAFC acts as a forum for the commissioning and dissemination of scientific advice received from the Advisory Committee on Fisheries Management of ICES on the state of fish stocks in the north east Atlantic. Based on this advice, NEAFC establishes conservation and management measures and at present the main stocks to be regulated by NEAFC are Atlanto-Scandian Herring, Blue Whiting, Haddock, Mackerel and Oceanic Redfish.
The current cooperative non-contracting parties of NEAFC are Belize, Japan, Canada and New Zealand.
