Countries fail to agree deal to curb overfishing of world’s oceans

Campaigners have warned that a lack of progress on tackling illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing will worsen the ‘crisis facing our oceans’, writes Tom Batchelor

Workers fill Vietnamese fishing boats with water to sink them after they were seized due to illegal fishing in Indonesia's waters, at Datuk island in West Kalimantan, Indonesia (REUTERS)

Negotiators from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have failed to agree on a plan to cut subsidies that lead to overfishing, in what campaigners have called a disappointing delay which will worsen the “crisis facing our oceans”.

The chairman of the talks, Santiago Wills, blamed delays linked to Covid-19 for the lack of a deal to eliminate grants for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

World leaders committed in 2015 to a series of UN targets including a deal that should have been finalised by the end of 2020 on ending government subsidies worth billions of dollars.