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Catching Up on Fisheries Crime
Author(s) -
ÖSTERBLOM HENRIK
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
conservation biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.2
H-Index - 222
eISSN - 1523-1739
pISSN - 0888-8892
DOI - 10.1111/cobi.12229
Subject(s) - fishing , fish stock , fisheries management , business , fishery , corporate governance , international waters , environmental planning , geography , finance , biology
This article describes international collaborative efforts aimed at improving the global capacity to address fisheries crime, with a particular focus on the International Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance (IMCS) network and INTERPOL activities. These 2 initiatives have emerged as a response to existing governance deficits and, combined, substantially improve the prospects for addressing illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing (FAO 2001) and associated crimes. I describe the development of these initiatives and provide some reflection on their challenges and opportunities. I use the term fisheries crime to include illegal fishing and associated crimes, although the efforts described here improve the prospects for addressing all aspects of IUU fishing activities, some of which may not constitute legal violations (FAO 2001).