It will not be until early 2026 that Panama will be able to find out whether or not it will be removed from the yellow card classification, which maintains it as a non-cooperating country in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, which corresponds to the European Union (EU), as confirmed by the general administrator of the Aquatic Resources Authority (ARAP), Eduardo Carrasquilla.
“Panama is taking the right steps. We are definitely limited by budget, but we are confident that early next year we will be able to receive a visit from the EU to demonstrate that we are indeed complying with the fight against illegal fishing,” Carrasquilla told this media outlet.
“We have been making progress in a broad dialogue process involving many technical aspects that the country has been developing. We have made significant progress in terms of controlling the international and national fishing fleet,” he added.
The general manager of ARAP announced that last week they were notified of a budget allocation that will allow them to acquire fisheries traceability software so that national fishing can be certified as legal and accepted by the EU.
In addition to the software, he said, the entity is appointing 50 fisheries inspectors, who will be permanently stationed at export processing plants, and is also acquiring patrol boats that will allow the entity to oversee fishing processes in the exclusive economic zone of national waters.
“We believe that in the coming days, we will be able to complete all of these tasks with this set of actions, which will put us in a position of real control over our national fisheries,” Carrasquilla stated.
For Arap, the inspectors add significant value, since Panama has 38 certified seafood processing plants, 16 of which export to the EU and other markets.
Furthermore, the EU has established itself as the fourth largest export market for seafood products in 2024, surpassed only by China, Taiwan, and the United States.
“The main areas that contribute to the production of the largest amount of fishery product processing and export are the entire Azuero and Chiriquí regions,” Carrasquilla said.
Currently, according to Arap, illegal fishing in Panama primarily affects protected and restricted areas.
The main areas with high incidences of illegal fishing are the Coiba mountain range, the area adjacent to Coiba National Park, and the protected area of the Bahía Piña area in Darién.
“These three areas have the highest incidence of illegal fishing, primarily caused by our national fleet, which ignores regulations and enters areas where industrial fishing is prohibited, an activity prohibited by law,” Carrasquilla emphasized.
The EU is interested in Panama providing evidence that it is, in fact, monitoring all fleet operations, both in international and domestic waters.
To this end, it will review any documentary evidence ARAP may have regarding its oversight of fleets operating in international waters, taking into account that Panama adheres to and complies with the rules stipulated by the organizations that oversee these zones, which extend from the Pacific to the Western Pacific and Atlantic.
The EU first sanctioned Panama with a yellow card in 2014, but it regained its green card status in 2017. Then, after a period of low investment and oversight, the economic bloc sanctioned the country again with a yellow card in 2019.
After 2019, there were two audits, one in 2020 and another in 2022, without results to overcome the yellow card sanction. This situation would mean that the third audit would result in a red card sanction, which was scheduled for the second quarter of 2025, but was not carried out.
