Tuvalu: MoU Signed with Sea Shepherd on Collaborative Fisheries Patrols and Enforcement

On 10 May 2023 the Government of Tuvalu signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sea Shepherd Global concerned with combatting illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Tuvalu’s EEZ (Tuvalu Department of Foreign Affairs). This represents the first collaboration law enforcement arrangement between the NGO and a coastal state in the Pacific region, previous examples involving Sea Shepherd assistance arrangements with Gabon, Liberia, Tanzania, The Gambia, Benin, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone and Namibia (Sea Shepherd Global Press Release). Under the terms of the MoU, Sea Shepherd will provide a designated vessel, Allankay, at no-cost to the government of Tuvalu to support law enforcement efforts through at-sea patrols. Under the terms of the MoU, Tuvalu will station a detachment from the Tuvalu Police Service aboard the Allankay with the authority to board, inspect, and arrest fishing vessels engaged in IUU activity in the EEZ of Tuvalu.