Fisheries and maritime security: understanding and enhancing the connection

Abstract

Maritime security policy is beginning to change, and one may note that some statements on maritime security occasionally include reference to fisheries – typically illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Some authors are sensitive to this change. Thus, some aspects of fisheries regulation, or rather IUU fishing, are occasionally connected to wider debates about maritime security. This literature is increasingly concerned with the operational links that make fishing activities vulnerable to or synergistic with crime. Other areas, such as the degree to which fisheries disputes and their resolution contribute to insecurity and good order respectively, remain underexplored. This chapter aims to deepen the dialogue about how fisheries fit within the broader framework of maritime security. We seek to move the debate forward by extending discussions about fisheries regulation into maritime security, showing how poor or ineffective regulation and management of fisheries activities can have a wider destabilizing effect on maritime security. In particular, we argue that cumulative, multiple stresses at lower/different levels can render maritime security generally more vulnerable. This is a novel perspective because it combines two discreet areas of concern: maritime security discourse and fisheries law.