A study conducted by researchers at the University of British Columbia has found that industrial-scale illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing accounts for as much as 15 percent of global marine wild capture and is estimated to be worth between USD 6.2 billion and USD 12.2 billion (EUR 5.4 billion and EUR 10.5 billion).
The study, titled “Casting light on the workings of illegal fishing markets,” found that roughly two-thirds of illicit seafood trade by value originates in West Africa, East Asia, and Southeast Asia, with the bulk of the illegal catch consumed in North America, Europe, and East Asia.
The paper’s co-authors, Philippe Le Billon and Rashid Sumaila, said “weak governance, harmful subsidies, opaque corporate structures, and complex international supply chains” are largely to blame for the issue, which continues to grow and is offsetting regulatory and monitoring advances made elsewhere.
Those advancements, according to the researchers, include drones, satellite vessel tracking, acoustic detection systems, AI analytics, and sensor-equipped ocean buoys that countries are increasingly using to monitor their exclusive economic zones.
For instance, this year, the U.S. introduced a USD 20 million (EUR 17.3 million) fund to support the adoption of American technology by Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries to target IUU fishing, particularly singling out China’s distant-water fishing fleet.
While such advances in technology have helped in the IUU fight, they may have also made fishery managers complacent, Sumaila told SeafoodSource.
“You need the bodies, you need people, and you need laws and people to enforce them. That combined with the technology is what will take us far, not just technology per se,” he said.
The authors said key priorities for combating illegal fishing include eliminating subsidies, mandating electronic vessel identification, strengthening port state controls, and increasing transparency around beneficial ownership.
Individual countries pursuing these improvements are welcome, but Sumaila said greater international cooperation will be needed to effectively address illicit trade while holding offending countries accountable.
“We have to show the benefit of doing so, and somehow the world will have to find a way to penalize those who don't play by the rules. This is when I look at the big countries,” he said.
Sumaila said eliminating government subsidies in particular could make well over half of the high seas fishing grounds unprofitable to fishing fleets, removing a prominent avenue where illicit trade is laundered through transshipment.
A final piece of the puzzle also lies in garnering greater public awareness of the impacts of IUU fishing, the disproportionate impacts of which are often felt by developing nations.
“We need to get the population to really understand what is going on as much as we can because if they get it, hopefully that will lead to pressure on businesses and governments to do what they are hired to do,” Sumaila said.
In their report, the authors also outlined the societal toll of IUU fishing, which contributes to “significant economic losses to governments and coastal communities, increased food and nutritional insecurity, and widespread labor abuses aboard fishing vessels.”
“Tens of thousands of crew members are estimated to face a high risk of forced labor or unsafe working conditions globally, particularly on vessels operating far from oversight,” Le Billon said in a release.
