Belize Agrees to Publish Vessel Tracking Data for Commercial Fishing Fleet, Promoting Transparency at Sea - Oceana

Victory | June 8, 2021

Belize Agrees to Publish Vessel Tracking Data for Commercial Fishing Fleet, Promoting Transparency at Sea

The government of Belize signed an agreement with Oceana and Global Fishing Watch (GFW) to make its vessel tracking data publicly available on the GFW platform. This will allow anyone to monitor all of Belize’s flagged commercial fishing vessels in near real-time. The agreement is the result of Oceana’s collaboration with the government to increase transparency of Belizean-flagged fishing vessels on the high seas. As part of a package of reforms to counter illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by its flagged vessels, Belize has made decisive improvements toward the monitoring and regulation of its flagged vessels on the high seas. In 2013, the European Union (EU) banned Belizean imports after the bloc’s IUU Regulation issued Belize a red card because of IUU activities. The EU red card was subsequently removed in response to the Government of Belize’s legislative and administrative changes. Oceana will continue to campaign for the government to progress in the fight against illegal fishing.