An analysis of FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Transshipment and CCAMLR transshipment regulations

In 2022, the thirty-fifth session of the FAO’s Committee on Fisheries endorsed a series of Voluntary Guidelines for Transshipment. These comprehensive Guidelines are intended to provide assistance to States, Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs), and other intergovernmental organizations such as CCAMLR. During informal workshops on compliance in 2024, participants noted that it would be useful to have an analysis of where CCAMLR stands with respect to the Guidelines. This paper provides this analysis, finding that 53 of the 63 guidelines are relevant to CCAMLR, while 10 are not applicable. Of those 53, CCAMLR has implemented 15 of the guidelines completely, 22 partially, and 16 have not been implemented at all. The Republic of Korea and ASOC hope that this paper will be useful in guiding the future development of proposals that can improve CCAMLR’s regulation of transshipments.