To End Illegal Fishing, Countries Must Work Together

This article is the fourth and final in a series about regional cooperation and fisheries.

Although illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing may occur in the waters of one country, it typically affects other countries as well. That’s because perpetrators of IUU fishing also often run sophisticated operations actively exploiting gaps in oversight or legislation across several jurisdictions. 

As noted in our first article in this series, cooperation and information exchange among flag, port, coastal and market States, along with regional bodies and multilateral groups, are fundamental to stopping IUU fishers and other bad actors. This cooperation is especially vital to fight IUU fishing that occurs in international waters, where enforcement of monitoring, control, and surveillance policies has additional challenges.

Some governments have more capacity and resources than others to monitor their waters and their vessels in the high seas and enforce the law. This asymmetry, particularly in knowledge of activities on the water, can make some countries reticent to cooperate with others that have more, or less, capacity, but it’s important that officials work past that wariness: Regional cooperation can create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, helping to stop illegal fishing, support healthy fisheries, and benefit every country involved.

Approaches to regional coordination

Effective regional cooperation can take many forms, including through existing organizations. For example, the Organization of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector of the Central American Isthmus (OSPESCA), a coordinating body that depends on frequent, comprehensive communication among its members—seven Central American countries and the Dominican Republic—has helped fight IUU fishing in the region.

In areas in which there isn’t an existing group, regional cooperation may require new frameworks or coalitions. Such was the case with the creation of Fish-i Africa, a task force of eight East African coastal States specifically established to fight IUU fishing through exchange of information and strong regional coordination. Fish-i Africa has had many successes both in interdicting IUU fishing operations and preventing IUU operators from entering or using regional ports. These valuable frameworks can help leverage regional resources combatting IUU fishing and magnify the impact of available resources.

Close cooperation is also an integral part of many international treaties and voluntary fisheries agreements. Treaties such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Port States Measures Agreement (PSMA), which helps prevent illegally caught fish from entering the supply chain, and the Cape Town Agreement (CTA), which provides minimum standards for vessel safety, depend on countries cooperating and sharing information. The same is true for the Voluntary Guidelines for Transshipment at sea. Each of those agreements also relies on authorities in different nations to apply standards and enforce the law.

Coordination and support needed to stop illegal catch from reaching the market

The PSMA is the only binding international agreement to specifically target IUU fishing. All parties to the agreement have committed to exchange information and assess each vessel’s risk before it enters port. To uphold the treaty, port States must be able to access fishing vessel and activity data that other countries or organizations might have. Port States also must communicate and exchange information, particularly with flag States, to verify declarations and to help block illegal fishers from landing their catch.

However, a lack of communication between port States and flag States often hampers PSMA implementation. For example, poor communication between port States in a region may open the door to unscrupulous operators who “port hop” until they find one that will—knowingly or not—allow landing of their ill-gotten catch. The PSMA is designed to elevate all ports to similar high standards of oversight, risk assessment, and international communication. To help ensure success, the treaty also includes provisions to fund and provide other material assistance to developing States to do this.

Better communication can also boost fisher safety and strengthen the supply chain

The CTA, adopted 10 years ago by the International Maritime Organization, is expected to enter into force this year. As the international community grapples with the human toll of fishing, regional approaches can help create safer working conditions at sea. In particular, regional groups and organizations can promote open communication, transparency, data collection, and dissemination of safety regulations, ensuring that their partners are on the same page when it comes to the safety of vessels operating in regional waters and how workers should be treated onboard. Regional coordination can also help countries comply with agreements aimed at addressing factors, such as IUU fishing, overfishing, and climate change, that make fishing one of the world’s most dangerous professions.

Regional coordination can also support States in addressing concerns across a particular activity or sector. For example, transshipment, the practice of transferring fish from the vessel that caught them to a refrigerated cargo ship, is an often-critical part of the fishing industry, allowing vessels to fish longer with fewer trips to ports. But loopholes in transshipping rules make it easy for bad actors to use the process to offload illegally caught fish and engage in other illicit activities. At a meeting last summer of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, governments approved a set of voluntary guidelines that would make tracking and sharing data more timely and comprehensive, and support cooperative efforts to make transshipment more transparent.

Each government has its own responsibilities and plans to end IUU fishing. The basis for many of these commitments is a series of global and regional frameworks, but implementing them in isolation limits their impact. Increasing regional cooperation and coordination is a hard but necessary step to help stamp out IUU fishing, improve ocean health, and bring benefits—including international credibility—to all States involved.

Katherine Hanly is a manager and Tahiana Fajardo Vargas is an officer with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ international fisheries project.