Illegal Fishing and Seafood Fraud
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Overview
Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing depletes fisheries, harms wildlife, destroys protected habitats, and is linked to forced labor and human rights abuses. In the U.S, where more than 94% of the fish consumed is imported, up to 32% of wild-caught seafood imports are the product of illegal or unreported fishing. IUU fishing also undermines communities that rely on a healthy ocean, and steals fish from legal fishers. Oceana campaigns to stop IUU fishing, increase transparency at sea, and require traceability to ensure that all fish sold in the U.S. is safe, legally caught, responsibly sourced, and honestly labeled.
What is Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing?
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Across the globe, IUU fishing depletes fisheries, harms marine wildlife, destroys habitats, and is a driver of forced labor and human rights abuses. IUU fishing threatens the health of our oceans and the communities that depend on them, while also undermining honest fishermen. IUU fishing also jeopardizes food security, local livelihoods, and the long-term sustainability of coastal economies.
Our seafood should not come with these costs.
Illegal Fishing
Illegal fishing operates outside the bounds of the law, including fishing without a permit, ignoring catch limits, harming protected marine wildlife, using prohibited fishing gear, fishing in closed areas, and more.
Unreported Fishing
Unreported fishing is when fishers misreport or fail to report their catches to authorities. Typically, the intent is to hide the number, size, or type of seafood caught.
Unregulated Fishing
Unregulated fishing includes fishing for unmanaged species and fishing in unmanaged areas, often on the high seas. In these lawless areas, vessels operate without catch limits using whatever destructive gear they choose.
What is The Economic Impact of IUU Fishing?
The U.S. imports nearly 2.4 billion in IUU seafood each year, potentially reducing U.S. fishers’ income by an estimated $60 million per year. Globally, the diversion of fish from legitimate fishing to IUU fishing costs $26-50 billion.
Honest fishermen are consistently undercut by IUU fishing, since illegally obtained products compete with those that are legally caught. Gluts of illegally caught fish flooding the market drive prices down. If the flow of illegal seafood into the U.S. were stopped, American fishermen would see roughly a 20% increase in their income.
How Does Illegal Fishing Affect The Environment?
Illegal fishing can destroy important habitats, kill non-target fish and other ocean wildlife, severely deplete fish populations, and threaten global food security. Its effects ripple throughout the ocean food web, harming everything from forage fish that feed other fish and wildlife to commercially valuable species to whales.
IUU Fishing and Forced Labor
IUU fishing is closely tied to other crimes, including human rights abuses; money laundering; and human, drug, and wildlife trafficking. Vessels willing to flout laws against these practices may be more willing to exploit workers to increase profits. Some vessels have been reported to go on voyages of several years before returning to port, often trapping workers aboard. Currently, an estimated 128,000 fishers are in forced labor situations at sea worldwide.
How to Stop Illegal Fishing
A lack of transparency and accountability at sea enables bad actors to operate outside the rule of law. As a major seafood importer, the U.S. must ensure that U.S. dollars are not supporting illegal activity that can undermine human rights and impact our oceans, wallets, and health. The U.S. must strengthen its tools to fight illegal fishing, including:
- Requiring catch documentation and traceability for all seafood;
- Improving vessel tracking requirements to increase transparency and hold vessels accountable;
- Implementing stronger sanctions against countries and vessels that facilitate illegal fishing;
- Targeting those companies and individuals who benefit from illegal fishing;
- Holding imported seafood to the same requirements as domestically caught fish; and
- Aligning the U.S. definition of IUU fishing with international standards.
With stronger tools in our toolbox, we can improve transparency and fight to end IUU fishing to protect American fishermen, businesses, consumers, and the oceans.
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Seafood Should Not Come at the Cost of Healthy Oceans and Human Rights
How Can We Stop IUU Fishing?
1. Require Detailed Catch Documentation For All Seafood
U.S. fishers are already required to report details about their catch under U.S. fisheries law. Imported seafood needs to be held to the same standard.
In 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) established the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP), which requires catch documentation and traceability for 13 species and species groups at risk of IUU fishing and seafood fraud. As of today, the program still only covers around 40% of the seafood imports coming into the U.S.
Oceana recommends expanding SIMP to all seafood imports, thereby requiring catch documentation that proves that the fish came from a legal fishery, including who caught the fish; where, when, and how it was caught; or if it was farmed. This information should follow the fish through every step of the supply chain, from boat to plate.
2. Improve Vessel Tracking
Once a fishing vessel is beyond the horizon and out of sight, it’s difficult to know exactly what it’s doing. Automatic Identification System (AIS) devices are a low-cost technology that broadcasts a vessel’s identity, coordinates, speed, and direction as frequently as once every few seconds. The data transmitted from AIS devices can provide a clearer view of what is happening on our oceans.
Oceana is a co-founder of Global Fishing Watch, an international, nonprofit organization founded in 2015 in collaboration with Google and SkyTruth. The Global Fishing Watch map empowers anyone to view or download data and investigate global fishing activity in near real-time for free, and helps advance ocean governance through increased transparency of human activity at sea. This free, public data allows governments, NGOs, and researchers to spot potentially suspicious activity and respond appropriately.
In the U.S., only vessels greater than 65 feet are required to carry and transmit AIS, and they only need to operate it within 12 nautical miles of shore. All fishing vessels should be required to carry and transmit AIS for the entirety of their trip.
3. Crack Down on Nations Enabling Illegal Fishing
Many illegal fishing vessels operate under “flags of convenience,” registering their vessels in foreign countries that have lax oversight. Flag of convenience countries benefit from the economic investment that foreign vessels bring in. Companies register their vessels in these countries to save money, dodge domestic regulations, and access cheap foreign labor. As a result, flags of convenience are strongly correlated with IUU fishing activity and labor abuses at sea.
The U.S. should expand NOAA’s authority to identify and sanction these nations, and disincentivize fishing companies from registering their vessels in countries with weak or no oversight mechanisms.
4. Strengthen Global Transparency Through The Coalition For Fisheries Transparency’s Global Charter
The Coalition for Fisheries Transparency is a global network of civil society organizations, including Oceana, that work together to improve transparency and accountability in fisheries governance and management. The Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency is a set of 10 policy principles designed to be adopted by governments globally, in law and in practice. These principles address the lack of transparency in three critical areas: vessel information, fishing activity, and governance and management.
Reports and Fact Sheets
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How pervasive is IUU fishing?
A: In the U.S., where more than 94% of the fish consumed is imported, up to 32% of wild-caught seafood imports are the product of illegal or unreported fishing.
Q: Which fish are most commonly targeted by IUU fishing?
A: The Seafood Import Monitoring Program requires catch documentation and traceability for 13 species and species groups considered “at risk” of IUU fishing and seafood fraud. Abalone, Atlantic cod, blue crab (Atlantic), dolphinfish (mahi-mahi), grouper, red king crab, Pacific cod, red snapper, sea cucumber, sharks, shrimp, swordfish, and tuna (albacore, bigeye, skipjack, yellowfin, and bluefin).
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