The Impact of Illegal Fishing on Maritime Piracy: Evidence from West Africa

Abstract

The recent increase in maritime piracy is often associated with economic issues such as a decline in the fishing industry, but there is still no consensus on whether a decrease in local fishing causes a rise in piracy rates. We introduce the use of unreported fish catch and fishing industry type in addition to reported fish catch in Gulf of Guinea waters when analyzing factors influencing West African piracy. Using a newly released data set, which includes Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported (IUU) fish catch by sector, we show that an increase in reported and unreported fishing yields an increase in piracy. Further, we find that increases in industrial fish catch are related to increases in maritime piracy while the opposite is true of artisanal and subsistence fish catch. We expect this new approach will highlight the impact of IUU and large-scale industrial fishing on piracy throughout the entire world.