Author: Wilcox, C., Mann, V., Cannard, T., Ford, J., Hoshino, E., Pascoe, S.

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.

Published: 2021-03-31

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13: 9251337950

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing constitutes a persistent and pressing problem estimated to account for up to US$23 billion annually in the APFIC area. The effects of IUU fishing can be severe, particularly for small-island and coastal developing states heavily dependent on fisheries, and include adverse impacts on peoples’ livelihoods, food security, national economies and the environment. Countries unable to fulfil international obligations for fisheries management and governance risk incurring trade sanctions on their fisheries exports, an increasing issue as export markets tighten their permitting. Furthermore, IUU fishing is increasingly associated with national and transnational organised criminal activities, although the evidence remains mixed. FAO commissioned this report two years ago to produce an independent update to an unpublished 2015 study on IUU fishing in the APFIC area of competence, which was presented to the APFIC as an information paper in 2016 (FAO 2016a). The 2015 study used a mixture of media reports, literature review, and interviews to build a picture of hotspots of illegal fishing across the APFIC area of competence. This report builds on the previous work, incorporating additional analysis methods to predict illegal fishing in a transparent manner. Based on discussions with the APFIC Secretariat, it was decided to limit the study to the illegal component of IUU fishing. A key difference with the 2015 study is the extension of the estimation of illegal fishing from the 33 hotspots covered in the 2015 study to the entire APFIC area of competence in this study.This report provides the following key outputs: (i) development and implementation of an agreed methodology for estimating illegal fishing levels and progress; (ii) information from case studies in three Asia-Pacific countries; and (iii) analysis of results from the agreed method estimating the incidence of illegal fishing and implication of efforts to reduce it. The approach taken to achieve these goals included a structured online survey of fisheries officials in APFIC countries, semi-structured interviews of key informants knowledgeable about illegal fishing in the APFIC region, and analysis of articles on illegal fishing from public media data across the APFIC area of competence.