IUU safe havens or PSMA ports: A global assessment of port State performance and risk

Abstract

The 2009 Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) was the first legally binding international instrument to empower port States to deny foreign vessels suspected of having engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing from using their ports and to land catches. This paper builds upon previous work analyzing 2020 AIS data to rank fishing ports globally and assessing evolving port State risk and port States performance in PSMA implementation. Internal and external indicators were identified to highlight the port States at risk of becoming exposed to IUU fishing transactions. This paper includes an analysis of designated port use, a key requirement of PSMA implementation. The paper also establishes an ongoing methodological framework for port associated IUU risk assessment using the outputs as a benchmark against which follow-up trend analyses are planned, the next using 2023 data. Port rankings evolved because of continued AIS adoption, port State business diversification and Covid-19 related disruptions. 3% of commercial port calls globally are made by foreign vessels. Globally, internal port State risk has dropped, while external risk has increased, the former driven by parties to the PSMA, and the latter by PSMA non-parties. Higher-risk fleets are now diverting to PSMA non-parties. The findings underline the transformational nature of the Agreement. Overall port State risk correlates more strongly with quality of governance than with national income. The paper finds that the PSMA’s designated port entry rule for foreign vessels is currently weakly applied in advanced economies whilst it is more strongly applied across the developing world.