Adapting to Regional Enforcement: Fishing Down the Governance Index

Henrik Österblom,Örjan Bodin,Jonas Hentati Sundberg,U Rashid Sumaila,Anthony J Press,A Peter Klimley

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012832

Abstract

BackgroundIllegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is a problem for marine resource managers, leading to depletion of fish stocks and negative impacts on marine ecosystems. These problems are particularly evident in regions with weak governance. Countries responsible for sustainable natural resource management in the Southern Ocean have actively worked to reduce IUU fishing in the region over a period of 15 years, leading to a sequence of three distinct peaks of IUU fishing.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe reviewed existing public records relating to IUU fishing in the Southern Ocean between 1995–2009 and related this information to the governance capacity of flag states responsible for IUU vessels. IUU operators used a number of methods to adapt to enforcement actions, resulting in reduced risks of detection, apprehension and sanctioning. They changed fishing locations, vessel names and flag states, and ports for offloading IUU catches. There was a significant decrease in the proportion of IUU vessels flagged to CCAMLR countries, and a significant decrease in the average governance index of flag states. Despite a decreasing trend of IUU fishing, further actions are hampered by the regional scope of CCAMLR and the governance capacity of responsible states.Conclusions/SignificanceThis is the first study of long-term change in the modus operandi of IUU fishing operators, illustrating that IUU operators can adapt to enforcement actions and that such dynamics may lead to new problems elsewhere, where countries have a limited capacity. This outsourcing of problems may have similarities to natural resource extraction in other sectors and in other regions. IUU fishing is the result of a number of factors, and effectively addressing this major challenge to sustainable marine resource extraction will likely require a stronger focus on governance. Highly mobile resource extractors with substantial funds are able to adapt to changing regulations by exploiting countries and regions with limited capacity.

Highlights

Resilient organizations are characterized by a high adaptive capacity, often resulting from well developed social networks which maintain and build trust and social capital [1,2]
The aim of this study is to describe how IUU fishing changed over time in the CCAMLR Convention area, and how these changes influence the capacity of CCAMLR to effectively address this non-compliance, using proxies for flag state governance capacity
95% were related to IUU fishing and 5% related to support of known IUU vessels

Summary

Introduction

Resilient organizations are characterized by a high adaptive capacity, often resulting from well developed social networks which maintain and build trust and social capital [1,2] Such institutions have been described for the management of natural resources [3], but organizations involved in criminal activities have been described as resilient to law enforcement due to a high adaptive capacity [4]. Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is a problem for marine resource managers, leading to depletion of fish stocks and negative impacts on marine ecosystems. These problems are evident in regions with weak governance. Countries responsible for sustainable natural resource management in the Southern Ocean have actively worked to reduce IUU fishing in the region over a period of 15 years, leading to a sequence of three distinct peaks of IUU fishing

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion