Illegal Catch

FORUM Staff

The Marshall Islands advanced the battle against illegal fishing in June 2024 when the Pacific island nation of 82,000 people officially became a party to the international contract known as the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA). The treaty, conceived and implemented by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), sets standards for regulating fishing vessels entering foreign ports.

The Marshall Islands, which began following the agreement’s provisions in 2017, became the 105th nation, and eighth in the Pacific region, to officially adhere to the pact, joining Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu. The agreement, enforcement of which began in 2016, now applies to nearly two-thirds of the world’s coastal states. 

The PSMA seeks to deter illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing by strengthening the legal tools available to nations, allowing them to prevent vessels carrying illegally caught fish from entering ports. With effective policing, host nations can turn away vessels engaged in IUU fishing. Monitoring and surveillance data from the FAO’s Global Information Exchange System, on-site inspections, and other tools enhance enforcement. The PSMA strives to block illegally caught fish from entering national or international markets and is designed to disincentivize illegal fishing.

“If these vessels are blacklisted from that [agreement], they can’t land their catch in the world’s ports,” Capt. Daniel Simon, a former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) liaison to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, told FORUM. “And that is really the goal, to have that accountability on those vessels. If they’re doing bad things, they don’t get to make money.” 

Indo-Pacific nations rely heavily on the oceans for commerce, and fisheries are a primary protein source for their populations. International law grants coastal states exclusive rights over the use and benefit of the natural resources, including fisheries, in their exclusive economic zones (EEZ), which extend 200 nautical miles (about 370 kilometers) from coastlines. IUU fishing in a nation’s EEZ violates sovereign rights and threatens national security.

The most harmed are the most vulnerable. Small-scale fishing accounts for 40% of the global catch and 492 million people are at least partially dependent on these fisheries for income. Small fisheries provide sustenance to about 1 billion people, including in Asian and Pacific island nations, as well as Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, according to the United Kingdom-based Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF). IUU fishing is driving the global decline of fish populations and “directly undercuts the most basic human rights of coastal fishing communities,” the foundation said.

About 20% of fish sold globally is caught illegally, totaling up to 14 million metric tons of catch and imposing an estimated economic toll of $50 billion annually, according to researchers. The U.S. Coast Guard has called IUU fishing “stealing another nation’s natural resources” and the environmental group Greenpeace International labeled it “daylight robbery on the high seas.” 

“For decades, IUU fishing has been a global problem affecting ocean ecosystems, threatening economic and food security, and putting law-abiding fishermen and seafood producers at a disadvantage,” according to the 2022 report to the U.S. Congress by the U.S. Interagency Working Group on IUU Fishing.

China is leading abuser 

Illegal fishing also preys on vulnerable workers and disadvantaged populations who are often lured aboard under duplicitous employment arrangements and trapped for years in conditions where abuse, lack of medical care and malnutrition exacerbate an already dangerous profession. As many as 128,000 people worldwide were trapped into forced labor aboard vessels, according to 2022 estimates by the U.N. International Labour Organization.

China is the leading perpetrator of IUU fishing. Chinese-flagged vessels are the most common violators of international fishing rules, ranking worst among 152 countries (Russia was second worst) in the 2023 IUU Fishing Index developed by the U.K.-based sustainable fisheries consultancy Poseidon Aquatic Resource Management and the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Though China is not a signatory to the PSMA, the international agreement allows other countries to deny port entry to Chinese-flagged vessels suspected of IUU fishing. 

China also is the leading abuser of forced labor on fishing vessels, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Financial Transparency Coalition. About 25% of commercial fishing vessels suspected of forced labor were Chinese-flagged, according to the group’s November 2023 study, which focused on vessels operating on the high seas or within another nation’s EEZ.

Between 2017 and 2023, Chinese vessels were linked to 86 cases of illegal fishing or human rights abuses in the southwest Indian Ocean. Nearly half of the 95 Chinese vessels authorized for tuna fishing there were linked to such crimes, undercutting Beijing’s claims of supporting sustainable development in the region, the EJF reported in April 2024.

A 2024 analysis by Oceana, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, found that fishing vessels are venturing to more remote locations and staying at sea longer in search of valuable catches such as tuna and squid. Nearly 3,000 vessels spent more than six months at sea during 2023, with some avoiding port for more than two years. Lengthy voyages can indicate that seafood is sourced from IUU fishing or forced labor, Oceana reported.

IUU fishing stems increasingly from state-supported deep-water fishing fleets, including massive trawlers accompanied by sustainment, freezer and transport vessels, retired U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Studeman wrote in a 2023 essay for Newsweek magazine. Operating continuously in large groups with global reach, the industrial-scale flotillas drag nets that capture everything in their wake, without regard for fisheries laws or the consent of coastal nations, said Studeman, then commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence.

China’s distant-water fleet of 4,600 boats is the world’s largest and reaches farther into the high seas each year, the U.S. Naval Institute reported. Many Chinese-flagged fishing vessels and their crews are part of Beijing’s maritime militia, providing surveillance and receiving training and funding to support the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military objectives.

Cost-effective enforcement

Enforcing the PSMA is the most cost-effective way to combat IUU fishing, according to the FAO, and experts note it is easier and safer to monitor vessels in port rather than sending patrol boats to track and potentially apprehend illegal operators in open water. The PSMA “ultimately contributes to the long-term conservation and sustainable use of living marine resources and marine ecosystems,” the FAO said.

Some governments initially were hesitant to join, concerned that adhering to the PSMA could slow port activity and reduce revenue. However, in a study of six ports in five countries, including the Marshall Islands and Thailand, researchers found that the PSMA caused no discernible changes to foreign vessel movements at most of the ports. “The commercial benefits of established processing plants, fishing grounds and vessel services near these ports outweighs any risk of vessels moving to more lax ports,” according to the 2022 study commissioned by the U.S.-based Pew Charitable Trusts and led by Australia-based consulting company MRAG Asia Pacific. “The study also found that overall vessel time in port, in almost all cases, remained the same before and after adopting more stringent port controls.” 

In 2018, two years after PSMA enforcement started, Pew researchers wrote, “Can a single treaty create a mechanism strong enough to combat widespread disregard for fisheries laws and policies? We believe the answer is yes, but the agreement is only as good as the parties that adhere to and enforce it.”

With IUU fishing operators traditionally exploiting ports known for lax law enforcement or limited inspection capacity, the FAO and NOAA train nations in PSMA enforcement. NOAA, for example, provides expertise on data collection and preparation, and also works with organizations such as the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council to ensure “an equitable place to be able to catch fish legally and then not provide benefits to those who aren’t playing by the rules,” said Simon.

The FAO’s global training program includes a three-week course for port inspectors and a two-week advanced course for officials tasked with monitoring, control and surveillance. Twenty-five participants from 19 countries completed the advanced course in May 2024. The U.N. agency also helped train 35 inspectors from the Fisheries Surveillance Centre of Madagascar in July 2024 and 24 inspectors from 15 countries in September 2024 in sessions held in Spain and underwritten by South Korea.

PSMA enforcement is more strongly applied across the developing world than in advanced economies, researchers reported in the September 2023 Marine Policy journal article “IUU safe havens or PSMA ports: A global assessment of port State performance and risk.” In the Pacific region, the Cook Islands and Vanuatu were among the states with the lowest risk of having their ports exploited by IUU fishing vessels, the study found. Elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific, Sri Lanka was least at risk for exploitation among Asian countries, reflecting its “remarkable performance in combatting IUU fishing with the group of Asian nations.” Sri Lanka’s efforts include its 2017 decision to become the first country in the region to ban bottom trawling and the use of destructive trawl nets. 

Despite such gains, IUU fishing remains a global scourge, with a June 2024 report on the U.N.’s sustainable development goals — adopted in 2015 — finding significant concern about fishing. Globally, sustainable fish stocks declined from 90% in 1974 to less than 63% in 2021, with the biggest drop in the Northwest Pacific — the region that includes China and Russia, the top IUU fishing offenders. Just 44% of the fish stock there was considered at a sustainable level in 2021, a decline of more than half since 2005. Overfishing, pollution and poor management are blamed.

Worldwide fight

Across the Indo-Pacific, like-minded nations are collaborating to counter illegal fishing, including joint patrols by U.S. Coast Guard and partner agencies in Pacific Island countries as part of the annual Operation Blue Pacific, which promotes safety, security, sovereignty and economic prosperity. Under the bilateral maritime law enforcement agreements, known as the shiprider program, each participating nation’s military personnel and/or maritime law enforcement officers can ride aboard the other’s vessels to enforce laws within their respective waters and EEZs. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Harriet Lane, for instance, conducted about 30 boardings within partner nations’ EEZs during a 79-day patrol that ended in April 2024. Participants include the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The U.S. Coast Guard also established the Illegal Unreported Unregulated Fisheries Center of Expertise in Hawaii in October 2023. It engages international partners to combat illegal fishing in the Indo-Pacific, promotes regional coordination and seeks to better equip partner nations. The center also seeks to increase maritime domain awareness, exchange information and increase interoperability.

Coast guards and navies from more than a dozen nations gathered in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands in mid-2024 for Galapex 2024, a two-week exercise focused on countering IUU fishing. Participants in the third iteration of the exercise included Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Italy, Panama, Peru, South Korea, Spain, the U.K., Uruguay and the U.S. Afterward, Ecuador announced a campaign to protect the Galapagos from the predatory practices of Chinese fishing vessels that have endangered maritime biodiversity for years. Meanwhile, the Peruvian government said it would establish rules that obligate foreign vessels entering its territory to have a satellite tracking system. It followed complaints from Peru’s fishing sector about Chinese vessels operating off the nation’s northern coast.

In a high-profile case, Ecuadorian authorities seized a Chinese vessel as it crossed the Galapagos marine reserve in 2017. It held more than 300 tons of sharks and other fish, including 12 endangered species. Ecuador gained legal ownership of the seized vessel in 2020 and uses it in operations to counter China’s illegal fishing. “From being an illegal vessel that transported many sharks from the Galapagos marine reserve,” Ecuadorian Navy Commander Boris Rodas told reporters, “it now reinforces our efforts against illegal fishing.”

At the 10th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM) in July 2024 in Tokyo, then-Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged Japan’s support in combating IUU fishing and emphasized that a stable and open Pacific Ocean is essential for the peace and stability of Japan and Pacific Island countries, according to Japan’s Foreign Ministry. The PALM action plan calls for deepening cooperation in vessel monitoring, control and surveillance, including using satellite data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The nations also said they would strengthen sustainable management of live marine resources, organize dialogues and symposiums with the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, and use the PSMA to “prevent, deter and eliminate” IUU fishing.