Australia shares skills with international partners to combat illegal fishing
Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) staff are working with international partners to deliver comprehensive training to fisheries officers from across the Asia-Pacific region for the third year running.
A group of 38 fisheries officers from RPOA-IUU member states came together at Nha Trang University for the first phase of the fisheries monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) course at the start of May.
The MCS course provides a vital platform for regional networking, enabling participants from Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Timor-Leste, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam to share information and foster collaborative efforts to combat IUU fishing across Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
The training course is provided to RPOA-IUU participating countries through the Combating IUU Fishing and Promoting Sustainable Fisheries in Southeast Asia Program, managed by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
AFMA is delivering the training in collaboration with Nha Trang University, Vietnam’s Department of Fisheries and Surveillance, the RPOA-IUU secretariat, the International MCS Network and not-for-profit fisheries intelligence provider TMT.
The first part of the course focused on the theoretical foundations of MCS, including regulatory frameworks, compliance programs and fisheries management. It also covered social dimensions of MCS, such as gender mainstreaming and international cooperation.
The AFMA instructors were joined by guest trainers attending remotely from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Thailand’s Department of Fisheries who provided valuable insights and global perspectives on tackling IUU fishing.
Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with many of the participants highlighting the training’s direct relevance to their daily work.
The second half of the course will be delivered later in 2025, with a fourth year of the course set to be delivered in 2026.
