Commercial fishing is one of the world's most dangerous professions yet the internationally-binding instrument which specifically addresses fishing vessel safety, the Cape Town Agreement, is not yet in force – because it needs more countries to ratify it.
That's why IMO has teamed up with the Pew Charitable Trust, an NGO, to organise a series of seminars for government officials and industry representatives in key developing countries, to raise awareness of the Cape Town Agreement and the benefits of ratifying it. These benefits include fewer accidents, fewer lives lost and a more effective infrastructure for monitoring and targeting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
The most recent of these seminars were held during October, in the Philippines and in Indonesia. A number of other interested organizations took part, including the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Labor Organization, the Apostleship of the Sea, the Lloyds Register Foundation, and the Fisheries and Marine Institute of the Memorial University of Newfoundland.
The Cape Town Agreement 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 ratified it. But, to date (November 2018), just 10 countries with 1,020 fishing vessels, have ratified it.