A recent report by an internal U.S. government watchdog found that the U.S. Coast Guard is not prioritizing the prevention of illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing, leading it to miss its interdiction goals for the last two years.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of the Inspector General, the Coast Guard devoted just 4 percent of its mission hours to tackling IUU fishing in 2023 and 2024. While setting a goal of interdicting 40 percent of foreign fishing vessels illegally operating in U.S. waters, the Coast Guard only interdicted 21 percent of those vessels.
“The Coast Guard attributed its low interdiction rates to competing priorities and insufficient resources,” the Office of the Inspector General said in the report. “As a result, the Coast Guard missed opportunities to potentially interdict 79 percent of the foreign fishing vessels suspected of illegally fishing in U.S. waters and protect the ecosystem from illicit fishing practices that threaten the sustainability of the fishing industry.”
The Coast Guard boarded and inspected 274 fishing vessels over that two-year period, but the watchdog office was unable to evaluate that number since ...
