Data for better enforcement
Fin Fighters works on the ground and is able to collect any evidence of IUU that may be occurring or is unreported. In the fishing ports and markets we are able to witness firsthand the sale and movement of any CITES listed species or evidence of illegal shark finning. The evidence we have collected so far from the first 2 years of this 5 year study will be amassed and produced in reports (together with our genetic results and data) that will be presented to the fisheries officials and governing bodies. Our aim with this is to prove that despite restrictions and laws (such as CITES and ICCAT) being agreed to by Moroccan governance – they are currently not being managed or enforced effectively. We are currently producing an education scheme, that we hope the Moroccan fisheries ministers will approve (with the reports and fishermen surveys as evidence to back this up) that we will run out across the country in ports and markets. This will provide basic knowledge of different species and outline the laws and restrictions as well as give explanations for why they are necessary.
It is important that we can provide quantitative as well as qualitative data for presentation to officials – so that the need for our program is clearly evidenced. By producing evidence of consistent law breaking (unintentional and intentional) or problem areas where species are targeted – we can clearly show the need for specific areas to be addressed and programs to be established.
The most important lesson we have learned in this work so far – is that the fishermen themselves may not be to blame for breaking the law, there is simply a lack of information and a definite lack of enforcement. We are hoping therefore to work with the fishermen to make the enforcement of the laws that protect their livelihoods more accessible and part of the every day. It is necessary to exercise extreme caution when collecting evidence of rule breaking and not to act on this rashly or without certainty – this is the reason we are collecting evidence for reports rather than chasing prosecutions straight away; as often this can drive activities underground and make monitoring the situation much harder as well as promote the creation of black markets.