The White House unveiled 15 recommendations against so-called pirate fishing – seafood fraud and the illegal, unreported and unregulated catch of fish – as a way to protect fishery stocks and bolster the income of legal harvesters. “Black-market fishing distorts legal markets and displaces law-abiding fishermen, ultimately serving as a drag on the global economy. These challenges can be compounded by seafood fraud — the mislabeling, misbranding, or falsification of product origins — which can occur at any point in the supply chain,” says a White House blog.
The recommendations, open to a 30-day comment period, include steps such as a traceability program to track seafood from harvest to arrival at U.S. ports, stronger enforcement of fishery regulations, and acting internationally to deter illegal fishing.