Book Description

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and fraud along the fish product supply chain impede sustainable fisheries worldwide and pose a major challenge to regulators, as well as control and enforcement authorities. In this context the ability to determine authenticity and provenance of fish and fish products throughout the fish product supply chain constitutes a key asset. This JRC reference report describes existing techniques based on genetics, genomics and chemistry that are suitable for fisheries control and enforcement and traceability of fish products. It argues that despite their value these techniques are currently underutilised, and discusses how they can be implemented by control and enforcement authorities. To demonstrate feasibility, examples are provided of cases where such techniques have already been successfully employed to reveal fisheries fraud and to generate evidence in court cases. Furthermore, strategies of how (forensic) genetics and chemistry could be translated into a routine European fisheries control and enforcement framework - in the context of EU policy and legislation - are explored. The purpose of this report is to catalyse an informed dialogue amongst stakeholders and to contribute to a more efficient technology transfer process -- EU Bookshop.