Towards a Blue Revolution in the Bay of Bengal: Tackling Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing Through Effective Regional Cooperation

Abstract

This article argues that the Bay of Bengal coastal States have largely failed to comply with their ‘duty to cooperate’ with other States in managing and conserving fisheries resources in the Bay. The obligation to cooperate is found in applicable international and national instruments and is also regarded as a rule of customary international law. This failure of rim States to effectively engage with other States within the region in regulating marine fisheries has exacerbated the problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Bay. This article recommends a major overhaul of the regional ocean governance arrangement in the region, which would help tackle IUU fishing and, in turn, facilitate the achievement of blue growth through ensuring sustainable exploitation and conservation of marine living resources in the Bay. The article finally moots for developing a regional agenda towards forming a dedicated scheme to deal with IUU fishing.

Reconstructing past fisheries catches for large pelagic species in the Indian Ocean

“…The most prominent example of this growing link between reflagged vessels and high-risk fishing practices is the exploitation of West African flags, mainly by Asian, especially Chinese vessels and fishing captains (Belhabib et al, 2015), to evade effective control and fish unsustainably and irresponsibly in both sovereign African and international waters (SRFC, 2013M; Belhabib, 2017;Belhabib et al, 2020). There are also examples of known IUU fishing activities in the Indian Ocean, such as unauthorized tuna longlining and transshipment in the Bay of Bengal, a hotspot for IUU fishing (Faiyaz and Al Arif, 2022) and likely non-compliance with national and international regulations by Spanish-owned vessels fishing in Indian and Somali waters without authorization (Rattle, 2020;Rattle and Duncan-Jones, 2022;Richardson, 2022). The IOTC and other regional regulatory bodies in the Indian Ocean urgently need to address IUU fishing and the problem of reflagging foreign vessels in the region.…”