The software for the digital control of fishing, which will allow Ecuador to get out of the yellow card, is in the final stage of implementation.
Members of the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament during a visit to the Eurofish tuna plant, in Manta, Ecuador, February 2023.
The implementation of the Integrated Aquaculture and Fisheries System (SIAP) entered the final phase, which is expected to conclude in July 2023.
The SIAP is a software that will allow to control Ecuadorian fishing activity digitally, in order to eradicate illegal fishing.
For the fishing industry, this is the most important requirement for the General Directorate for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the European Commission, DG MARE, to raise Ecuador’s yellow card.
The card was a sanction imposed on the country in 2019, for not having the necessary controls to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
“The SIAP allows us to know which boat caught a tuna, who unloaded it at the port, what transport took it to the processing plant, how it was processed and in which can it is being exported,” says the Minister of Production, Julio José Prado, who will leave office on July 3, 2023.
And he adds that this level of digital traceability did not exist at the public sector level.
The software
Prado stresses that the companies had until the end of June to finish implementing the system.
One of the processes with which the sector must comply in the SIAP is with the guide for the mobilization of fishing products , adds the Minister. “To mobilize fishing that was done on the high seas, companies require this guide, which authorizes moving fish from one place to another, and processing it,” explains Prado.
This is one of the 116 processes linked to the fishing activity that will now be digitized in the SIAP, the Minister assures.
At the end of June, the Government planned to send a final report to DG MARE. And he hopes that, with that, the entity can come to Ecuador in September, to carry out a new audit of the fishing sector, with a view to lifting the yellow card.
Artisanal fishing, without satellite monitoring
All actors operating in the fishing sector must be part of the SIAP. Among them are 602 trading and processing companies in the fishing sector.
In addition, refrigerators and fishing boats are part of the system.
Industrial fishing boats already have satellite monitoring devices , which allow the State to geolocate them from a monitoring center. This information is crossed with data that is in the SIAP.
These devices are not yet a requirement for the artisanal sector , which covers more than 40,000 vessels.
“The objective is to use part of the resources from the debt-for-conservation swap that was made for the Galapagos Islands to provide the artisanal fishing sector with satellite monitoring devices,” says Prado.
Currently, control over artisanal fishing has a coverage level of 40% , adds the Minister.
Budget
The SIAP has a budget of USD 10 million per year for the next two years, says Prado.
Prado details that during the Government of Guillermo Lasso, close to USD 40 million have been allocated to the development of the SIAP.
In addition to the software, the Ministry has also hired more than 350 fisheries inspectors, who review all fishing landings in the coastal profile and even fishing that takes place on the high seas, from industrial vessels. They do it digitally through SIAP.
Although the aquaculture sector was not affected by the yellow card, Prado recalls that the system is also aimed at this activity. “All issues related to the movement of shrimp catches must be registered.”
However, the president of the National Aquaculture Chamber, José Antonio Camposano, assures that the SIAP is not yet enabled for this sector.
Control and safety
The executive director of the Ecuadorian Chamber of Industrialists and Tuna Processors (CEIPA), Mónica Maldonado, explains that the SIAP covers two large processes: control of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; and safety.
The main characteristic of the system is the interoperability between different processes, which were previously carried out in different State entities, including the National Customs Service of Ecuador (Senae).
“This is key in traceability and is something unprecedented in Latin America,” says Maldonado. But he adds that the interoperability between the ports and the National Directorate of Aquatic Spaces still needs to be completed.
