that fishing and aquaculture are human activities that provide high quality food, social and economic benefits, and contribute to nutrition and food security, poverty reduction and rural development;

the importance of the long-term conservation and sustainable use of the world’s oceans and their resources;

Deeply that illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing continues to pose a serious threat to the long-term conservation and sustainable use of such resources;

the strenuous efforts by FAO to fight IUU fishing towards sustainable use of fisheries resources in the context of food security and eradication of hunger, thereby contributing to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2 and 14;

the entry into force on of the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, approved by the FAO at its Thirty-sixth Session ( , 18-23 November 2009) under paragraph 1 of Article XIV of the FAO Constitution;

upon governments to ratify the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing and to commit to its effective implementation;

the urgent need of raising public and government awareness on the threats posed by IUU fishing activities to the sustainable use of fisheries resources, as well as on ongoing efforts to fight these activities, with particular attention to the negative impacts on the economies of developing countries dependent on fisheries resources;

the 32nd Session of FAO Committee on Fisheries endorsement of the proposed “International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing”;

of the 2016 resolution of the on “Sustainable fisheries, including through the 1995 Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, and related instruments”, which welcomes the endorsement by the of the proposed International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing while encouraging the Food and Agriculture Organization to take further action in this regard;