NEWS

The 2012 Cape Town Agreement is an internationally-binding instrument that sets minimum requirements on the design, construction, equipment, and inspection of fishing vessels of 24 meters in length and over or equivalent in gross tons (see (*)). The Agreement includes mandatory international requirements for stability and associated seaworthiness, machinery and electrical installations, life-saving appliances, communications equipment and fire protection, as well as fishing vessel construction.

International treaties such as the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) have been in force for any decades for commercial shipping, including cargo and passenger ships. SOLAS includes a number of regulations which are applicable to all ships, such as its SOLAS chapter V, on safety of navigation. However, many other SOLAS regulations provide an exemption for fishing vessels.

Unlike other merchant ships, which load cargo in a port and then carry it to unload at another port, fishing vessels set out to sea unladen, catch fish and sail back to port with their catch of fish. Some larger trawlers and factory ships freeze, process and tin fish, out at sea.

IMO has been working to address fishing vessel safety for many decades. In collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), IMO has developed and revised a series of non-mandatory instruments which address the design, construction and equipment of fishing vessels, including:

In 1977, IMO adopted the Torremolinos International Convention for the Safety of Fishing Vessels, which was later modified by the 1993 Torremolinos Protocol. As both of these treaties had failed to come into force, IMO later adopted the 2012 Cape Town Agreement, to bring into effect the provisions of the earlier treaties.

The Cape Town Agreement includes mandatory international requirements for stability, construction and associated seaworthiness of fishing vessels of 24 metres in length and over, as well as requirements for life-saving appliances, communications equipment and fire protection.

It should be noted that IMO's MARPOL regulations for the prevention of pollution from ships do apply to fishing vessels, including regulations for the prevention of pollution by garbage from ships, which prohibit the discharge of garbage and operational waste

The treaty will enter into force 12 months after at least 22 States, with an aggregate 3,600 fishing vessels of 24 m in length and over operating on the high seas have expressed their consent to be bound by it.

At present there are 23 contracting Member States to the CTA : Belgium, Belize, Congo, Cook Islands, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Kenya, Namibia, Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa and Spain.

The total number of fishing vessels currently is 2935, with 665 more required to reach the 3,600 declared fishing vessels.