Where do “Undocumented” Fish Land? An Empirical Assessment of Port Characteristics for IUU Fishing

Abstract

Research on IUU fishing has identified the importance of ports of convenience as facilitators of IUU fishing activities. These types of ports allow IUU fishing vessels to offload their illegal catch undetected and transfer it via other methods to target destinations and into international markets. No study to date has explained what port characteristics make them attractive to IUU fishing vessels. Applying the risky facilities framework, this study empirically tests ports' traits that facilitate vessel entry and offloading of illegal catch. A total of 120 ports visited by IUU fishing vessels are studied for measures of regulation of behavior and degree of enforcement activity occurring within their jurisdiction. Additionally, country-level characteristics are examined. Policy recommendations are devised to inform change in place management practices and to discourage IUU fishing activities.

A synthesis of (non‐)compliance theories with applications to small‐scale fisheries research and practice

“…Petrossian, Marteache, et al (2015) applied this framework to study what characteristics make ports attractive for non‐compliant vessels to land their catch. To do this, they analysed data on the ports used by vessels that were listed as performing non‐compliant fishing by Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMO).…”

Closing Gaps in National Regulations Against IUU Fishing

“…Public and political awareness of the issue has increased and a consensus has emerged on the need for countries to join in efforts to combat IUU fishing. 1 Countries have realised that curtailing IUU fishing could contribute to the recovery of their fisheries without having to resort to socially or politically unpopular actions such as fishing moratoria or forced capacity removals (Cabral et al, 2018[12]; OECD, 2017 [13]). The issue also now features prominently on the international political agenda, particularly following the adoption in 2015 of specific targets under the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, which set objectives to end IUU fishing (14.4) and eliminate subsidies contributing to IUU fishing (14.6) by 2020 (Box 1.2).…”

Factors influencing the choice of a safe haven for offloading illegally caught fish: a comparative analysis of developed and developing economies

“…This date was selected randomly. It was not necessary to collect data on multiple dates because, according to Petrossian et al (2015), the correlation between the average number of daily arrivals in port at a given month and daily real-time number of vessels on a randomly selected date in a month are positively correlated, with a correlation coefficient value of r …”