The Norwegian Minister of Fisheries Per Sandberg will attend the 3rd International Fisheries Crime Symposium in Vienna on the 25th September this year with participants from 56 countries with the goal to raise global awareness about organized crime in the global fishing industry.
This is the third time this event has been arranged, the first in Cape Town, then Yogyakarta – Indonesia, and now in the UN Complex in Vienna.
“I am particularly pleased with the good and close cooperation we have with Indonesia both during last year and this years Symposium and I am looking forward to meet Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti and other high level participants in Vienna”.
The symposium is also arranged with a number of other organizations such as the Nordic Council of Ministers, INTERPOL, PescaDolus and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The Symposium will also host the launch of the report Chasing Red Herring, an analysis of how flags of convenience and secrecy makes it easier for organized criminal groups to commit fisheries crime.
Sandberg belives that “this report is both timely and important and shows that globally, there is evidence that organized criminal groups are involved in illegal fishing and use the services that provides anonymity to make investigations more difficult.”
And continues:
“I am concerned that there are more stateless vessels out there then previously though and this seriously undermines the good order and rule of law at sea I am also concerned that private companies are buying their own ship registers from vulnerable countries for as little as 100 000 USD per year and criminals can use these ship registers to hide their identity and committ fisheries crime.”
Source: government.no / Norway Today
