Sustainable fisheries represent essential resources worldwide. They provide livelihoods for millions of people and nutritious, protein-rich food for billions. However, fisheries face many threats, including pollution, habitat destruction and invasive species. One of the most serious threats is called “illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing,” or more simply, “IUU fishing.” As the name implies, this global problem comprises three types of activities:
- Illegal fishing: fishing that is conducted in contradiction to applicable laws and regulations.
- Unreported fishing: fishing that is not reported or misreported.
- Unregulated fishing: fishing where there are no conservation or management measures in place.
Fishing without a license, failing to report catches or falsifying reports, keeping undersized fish and fishing during closed seasons are all examples of IUU fishing. Sometimes, IUU fishing occurs at relatively small scales, such as a single vessel fishing in another country’s territory. However, IUU fishing can also occur at vast scales via transnational organized crime. In addition to threatening economic growth and food security (particularly in developing nations that rely more heavily on fisheries for food sources and export income), IUU fishing ubiquitously undermines fisheries sustainability and puts law-abiding fishermen at a disadvantage.
The U.S. has been, and continues to be, a leader in addressing IUU fishing around the world. The Congressionally established U.S. Interagency Working Group on IUU Fishing, which includes 21 U.S. federal member agencies, works in conjunction with the Department of State and U.S. Coast Guard. On Oct. 20, the group released its National Five-Year Strategy for Combating Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing.
This document specifies priorities and plans to “combat IUU fishing, curtail the global trade in seafood and seafood products derived from IUU fishing, and promote global maritime security” over the next five years. In particular, the working group will increase capacity to use a “coordinated, cohesive, and regionally appropriate approach to combating IUU fishing and related threats.”
The working group will focus its efforts on five countries during this strategy period: Ecuador, Panama, Senegal, Taiwan and Vietnam. Notably, these are not the worst IUU fishing offenders; rather, they are committed to reducing IUU fishing by their fleets. The U.S. will help these countries to also become leaders in combating IUU fishing.
The new strategy also outlines approaches to increased collaboration across the Working Group agencies and with foreign partners and nongovernmental organizations. The working group hopes to eventually build a global network that will cooperate to combat IUU fishing at local, regional and international scales.
Meet the author
Amanda Jargowsky
Marine Fisheries Specialist
Amanda Jargowsky is a marine fisheries specialist with the MASGC-supported Marine Fisheries Ecology Program at the Mississippi State University Coastal Research and Extension Center. She conducted... Read more
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