A report for the government on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing said that as recent as 2021, there were 19,000 vessel-days where non-Guyanese flagged vessels were found in this country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
“In the latter part of 2021, there were over 19,000 recorded vessel-days where non-Guyanese flagged fishing vessels were found to be within the Guyana’s EEZ). More than 2,600 of these vessel-days were by CARICOM Member States”, the report submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture said.
While the actual activity being carried out during each of these vessel-days has yet to be determined, the report said that they serve as a proxy for the comparative level of IUU fishing when/if considered across coastal states, absent the determination of innocent passage.