A United States Presidential task force on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing says foreign subsidies of fishing fleets should be eliminated within five years.
Photo: RNZ / Philippa Tolley
The task force, set up last year to tackle illegal fishing and seafood fraud, does not identify any country by name, but the American Samoa US-flagged fishing fleet has identified China as heavily subsidising Chinese boats in the region.
The task force says this encourages overfishing, and contributes to excess capacity of fishing fleets.
It says the subsidies also undermine the effectiveness of fisheries management regimes.
The Executive Director of the US Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, Kitty Simonds, says the Council strongly supports efforts to curb subsidies to fleets that result in overcapacity and encourage overfishing.