The representatives returned to Torremolinos more than 40 years after the adoption of the first global treaty on the safety of fishing vessels in Torremolinos in 1977. This agreement has not entered into force, nor has a 1993 follow-up protocol. The 2012 Cape Town Agreement addressed technical issues that prevented the treaty from entering into force. In 1977, delegates adopted the first international treaty on the safety of fishing vessels in Torremolinos, with the adoption of a follow-up protocol in 1993. This agreement has not entered into force. IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim said that more than 40 years later, the world has returned to Torremolinos to work on the implementation of the agreement. Lim welcomed the “broader consensus of the 2019 conference on the urgency of the entry into force of the Cape Town Agreement” and stressed that it would be “a significant contribution to the long-term sustainability of the fishing industry”. He called for the agreement to enter into force as soon as possible. The Cape Town agreement joins a handful of other international fisheries agreements that have gained ground in recent years.
Today, observers say that it is now the dynamic that wins behind the agreement. Thirteen countries have ratified the agreement to date: Belgium, Congo, the Cook Islands, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, St. Kitts and Nevis, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa and Spain. Two of them, Cook Islands and Sao Tome and Principe, deposited their official ratification letters at the Torremolinos conference. .