IUU Fishing Research Articles

THE ROLE OF INDONESIA CUSTOMS IN THE ERADICATION OF IUU FISHING

Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing is a challenge in fisheries management and has the potential to threaten the stability of maritime security, especially in Indonesia. IUU Fishing is typically associated with other crimes such as smuggling, human trafficking, drug abuse, and human rights abuses. IUU Fishing also has adverse impacts economically, ecologically, and socially. Therefore, the enforcement of the law in the eradication of IUU Fishing is encouraged, for -not only to use one law to ensnare criminals, but also to optimize all legal instruments customs laws. Customs, as one of the agencies involved in the maritime security sphere, also has responsibility to help overcome and prevent the occurrence of IUU Fishing crimes. This study aims to determine the role and efforts that can be done by Customs in improving Indonesia's maritime security through the eradication of IUU Fishing using normative juridical qualitative research methods with a research focus on literature studiess and written regulations or other legal materials. The study found that there are undoubtedly three roles of Customs in the eradication of IUU Fishing, both directly and indirectly, namely the role of supervision, trade facilitator, and industrial assistance.

Anadromous sturgeons of Russia: prospects for fishing

The aim is to reveal the current status of anadromous sturgeon populations in Russia against the background of many years of large-scale measures for their restoration and legislative protection of stocks.Material — the results of mathematical modeling of scenarios for the restoration of sturgeon stocks to a stable state sufficient for the resumption of commercial fishing, as well as the results of direct field surveys of the sturgeon population.The results show that with the leveling out of illegal fishing and an increase in the volume of artificially reared juveniles to replenish natural populations, in the perspective of 5–10 years, it is possible to allow the start of commercial sturgeon fishing in the Azov and Amur basins. Expeditionary research in recent years confirms the growth of sturgeon populations’ size in the Sea of Azov and the Amur River. For the sturgeons of the Volga-Caspian basin, the prospect of restoring a stable population is more distant and requires a significant increase in the volume of artificial reproduction.Conclusion: the number of sturgeons in the Sea of Azov and the Amur River basin has been steadily growing in recent years; in the Volga-Caspian basin, the number of Russian sturgeon fluctuates from year to year and its steady growth, as well as decrease, has not yet been observed. Commercial sturgeon fishing in the Azov and Amur basins can be resumed in the near future, provided that the volume of their artificial reproduction is increased and IUU fishing is leveled out.

Conflicts and Challenges of Sustainable Fisheries Governance Cooperation under the Securitization of the Maritime Commons

There is a growing trend towards securitization of the maritime commons, which seriously impacts sustainable fisheries governance cooperation. This impact is mainly reflected in the fact that it undermines the effectiveness of the international legal framework for sustainable fisheries governance, which is fragmented and runs based on countries’ willingness. It makes the international legal basis for sustainable fisheries governance cooperation more fragile. As a result, countries are more inclined to take the issues of sustainable fisheries governance and its sub-issues as security-related issues or tools for achieving maritime security strategies. Ultimately, it will lead to confrontation rather than cooperation in sustainable fisheries governance. Evidence that can support this theory is from combating IUU fishing, a sub-issue of sustainable fisheries governance, in the Northeast Asia Pacific and the South China Sea. From securitization theory and international law theory perspectives, desecuritization is the core of the solutions, including the desecuritization of the maritime commons and the desecuritization of its sub-issues. In practice, desecuritization includes improving the effectiveness of the international legal framework for sustainable fisheries governance and establishing regional cooperative governance mechanisms. The result will certainly help to promote sustainable fisheries governance cooperation on a regional and global scale.

Legal Enforcement for IUU Fishing in Indonesian Sovereignty And Jurisdiction: A Case Analysis of The Capture of Foreign Vessels by The Indonesian Government

The cases of IUU Fishing often occurred in Indonesia. This is due to the lack of supervision by the Indonesian government towards foreign vessels that are still fishing in Indonesian territorial and EEZ. IUU fishing caused huge losses to the country. One of the perpetrators of this illegal act was the Thai Silver Sea 2 ship. The ship entered Indonesian territorial waters precisely in Sabang waters, by flying the Indonesian flag to trick the Indonesian government patrolling around Sabang waters. However, gradually the Indonesian government became aware of the existence of foreign vessels which had been suspected by Indonesia for a long time because it often turned off VMS so that its existence could not be detected by the Indonesian government. This study will examine more deeply related to whether the action conducted by Silver Sea 2 Vessels violate Indonesian regulation and UNCLOS 1982? And is the legal enforcement of Illegal Unreported and Unregulated Fishing taken by Indonesian government compatible with UNCLOS 1982?. This research is a normative legal research with a statute approach, and a conceptual approach. Legal material collection techniques are carried out by examining the relevant literature, analyzing various legal references relevant to the problem related to the study to be analyzed further qualitatively and descriptively. The results showed that the actions of SS2 ships violated Indonesian legislation and UNCLOS 1982 and were appropriate when this case was handled by the Sabang district court.

IUU Fishing, Permasalahan Dan Upaya Pencegahannya Di Perairan Indonesia

IUU Fishing is a global issue in the world of fisheries, especially in Indonesian waters. The factors that cause IUU Fishing in Indonesian often occur are inseparable from the statement that Indonesian has potential and a strategic environtment in the global world, especially the condition of fisheries in other countries that have sea borders and fishery management systems in Indonesian. Factors causing IUU Fishing include the need for increased world fish demand, disparities in world fish prices, and overfishing. Losses experienced as a result of IUU Fishing in Indonesian can have social, economic, political and environmental impacts. In order to realize security in the marine and fisheries sector, orderly and uphold the law and human rights, it’s necessary to have efforts prevent and combat IUU Fishing, namely efforts to prevent, and take action.

Sustainable Development Goal 14 in the Western Indian Ocean: a socio-ecological approach to understanding progress

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) intend to “achieve a better and more sustainable future for all people in the world”1. They have become a key driver for policy and decision-making in many regions, including in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region. This paper analyses national and regional progress towards achieving SDG 14 in the WIO. Progress of four of the SDG 14 targets that were due in 2020 are analysed. SDG 14 has influenced regional and national policy agendas but current tools to measure this progress fail to provide a detailed picture of achievement towards each target for countries in the WIO. The paper highlights that the region has shown limited success in achieving the targets and SDG 14 targets are unlikely to be reached by 2030. The WIO region lags behind with regard to marine conservation related targets. More than half of the countries have low to average progress on SDG 14.2 on marine areas being covered by area-based management tools. Even more countries are far from achieving the 10 % coverage of marine protected areas under SDG 14.5. The region is performing better with regards to fisheries management targets with most countries classified as making average to good progress towards SDG 14.4 on sustainable stocks and SDG 14.6 on addressing harmful subsidies and IUU fishing. The diversity of the socio-economic and governance contexts in the WIO countries contributes to different levels of progress. The fairly positive ecological state of the WIO supports progress towards SDG 14. Understanding barriers to progress is fundamental to help with the prioritisation of the actions needed to meet the SDG 14 targets by 2030. Regional actors and policy-makers will need to increase their ambitions to meet the SDG 14 targets and ensure a healthy ocean and improved prospects for the region and its citizens. To account for barriers in progress towards SDG 14, the WIO region needs appropriate reporting and monitoring mechanisms and it should follow a holistic regional approach of ocean governance integrating conservation and sustainable resource use. It needs to build capacity and knowledge sharing for implementation of SDG 14 and ocean governance at various levels. Improved implementation of SDG targets will have social, economic and environmental benefits within the region.

A Fairer Governance of High Sea Fishing through a Systemic Interpretation Approach

The regulation of high sea fishing would not be successful without cooperation among the states in the current international society, without a world government. However, the ongoing quest for cooperation in the field of fishery governance focuses too much on the unilateral responsibility of a state to cooperate with a RFMO, overlooking the responsibility of state parties of an RFMO or the state seeking to regulate IUU fishing. This essay reveals that the equitable consideration of fishery governance is sometimes prejudiced in the name of conservation. Fishery governance involves food security, employment, free trade, and the environment. An ideal regime of high sea fishing is expected to balance the conflicting values and bring an end to the fragmentation of international law. The systemic interpretation approach, which is based on Article 31, paragraph 3(c) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, contributes to a fairer governance of high sea fishing. Such an approach revives the obligation of the state to cooperate in the fishery sector by referring to external legal sources, including human rights laws, WTO laws, and environmental laws.

Pirogues to Paradise?

Pirogues to Paradise?

Criminal sanctions and IUU fishing: The case of Spain

This article sets the scene for the contributions in this Special Issue on Criminal sanctions and IUU fishing: the case of Spain. The objective of the collection of papers included in this special issue is to stimulate an academic conversation about whether or not it would be appropriate to intensify the application of criminal sanctions in Spain for serious cases of illegal fishing. There are two main reasons to justify the connection of this international debate on the best legal means to fight against illegal fishing with the particular case of Spain. The first is the significance of the Spanish distant-water fleet, both in terms of the EU and on an international scale. The second reason is the current context of fisheries law reform in Spain.

Sea cucumber catch reconstruction and species composition as determined by seizures analyses from the IUU fishing in the Campeche Bank, Mexico

Between 2010 and 2018, the sea cucumber fishing in the Campeche Bank, Mexico, was a flourishing fishery showing increasing landings followed by a precipitous decline, where illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU) was an important factor to its deterioration. Currently, despite this fishery is under permanent fishing ban since 2019, the IUU fishing prevails. This work aims to reconstruct the past sea cucumber catch, and species composition, in this region based on seizures analyses, between 2010 and 2021, collected from official documents. We estimated the total IUU catch of sea cucumber at 8117.6 t and detected that fishery statistics, based on the sea cucumber fishery in the southern Gulf of Mexico reported to FAO, have information gaps indicating overexploitation of Isostichopus badionotus. Our current assessment must be used cautiously, and may serve to justify the need to conduct these analyses in order to understand the reality of IUU fishing in the region. We recommend incorporating fishers’ community programs in order to deter the IUU fishing through active participation of legal fishing dealers, in agreement with fisher cooperatives or guilds, which are eager to support the sea cucumber fishery in the Yucatan and also implementing fishing refuge areas (FRAs) for the development of guided and supervised stock restoration campaigns.

The prosecution of fisheries crime in Spanish criminal law: The impact of European Union regulations

This contribution offers a critical reflection on fisheries crime as described in the Spanish Penal Code. It sets out the reasons why its treatment is considered ineffective, and why the administrative offences and sanctions provided for in Law 3/2001 on Maritime Fisheries are more effective and dissuasive. However, it also considers that a legislative policy relying on the severity of administrative sanctions for its effectiveness may be counterproductive. The most recent judgements of the ECtHR consider that a disproportionate administrative sanction is equivalent to a penalty and should therefore be imposed with the same procedural and substantive safeguards. Finally, it is concluded that in order to avoid impunity for serious crimes in the field of IUU fishing activities, often managed by transnational and organised criminal networks with links to other criminal activities, the contribution of criminal jurisdiction is essential. Therefore, a reform of the Spanish Criminal Code is required, extending the conducts punishable as fishing crimes, increasing the penalties and establishing the criminal liability of legal persons.

International Laws for the Prevention of IUU Fishing and Improvement Plans for Related Law Systems in Korea

International Laws for the Prevention of IUU Fishing and Improvement Plans for Related Law Systems in Korea

FOREIGN VESSEL SINKING POLICY IN ERADICATING ILLEGAL, UNREPORTED, AND UNREGULATED (IUU) FISHING IN THE INDONESIAN EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE (IEEZ)

The relevance of foreign vessel sinking policy to eradicate IUU fishing in IEEZ by national regulation to UNCLOS 1982 is questionable. This paper uses a normative legal analysis, examining international conventions and national regulation provisions and their application to legal events. The results indicate that implementing the foreign vessel sinking policy is national law enforcement of Law No. 45 of 2009 amendment to the Law No. 31 of 2004 Concerning Fishery, Article 69 (1) and (4). The foreign vessel sinking policy is not contrary to UNCLOS 1982 because the subject protected in EEZ by Article 73 (3) is the human being, not the vessel. It remains an effective means to create a deterrent effect as an optimum penalty for such crime.

Case Analysis of the Entry of China’s Ship at Natuna Sea in 2019 Based on International Law

The entry of China’s ships at Natuna Sea in 2019 poses a threat to Indonesia’s sovereign rights. The entry of China’s ships was followed by IUU fishing activities. This writing aims to analyze and find out the regulation of international law and efforts that Indonesia can do against foreign ships that entered the Indonesian EEZ. This writing uses normative legal research method by law and statutory approach. The conclusion of this writing is that Indonesia’s claim to the Natuna sea already has a legal basis because it is included as EZZ in the UNCLOS 1982. The efforts that Indonesia can do against the entry of foreign ships in the EEZ are to propose a settlement through the court of its choice, and take actions such as arrest and detain foreign ships that entered Indonesian EEZ which are accompanied by IUU fishing activities, and follow up with law enforcements.

한국의 IUU 어업 예방 및 관리방안 연구

The drastic change in Korea's IUU fishing control system was caused by external factors such as preliminary designation of IUU fishing countries, and the contents were rapidly reorganized to meet the international level, which differed from the perception of the ocean industry. In this study, in order to more actively participate in all efforts to prevent IUU fishing by the international community, domestic laws and institutional improvement measures in Korea were proposed. as follows; First, four improvement measures were proposed as institutional improvement measures. Although each plan has advantages and disadvantages, the most reasonable alternative is to establish a (tentative name) Distant Water Fisheries Management Center belonging to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries to focus, systematically, and efficiently search institutions that played a distributed role. Through this, it is expected that maximizing capabilities by synthesizing distributed functions will overcome the problems of the existing system. Second, compared to the maximum monetary punishment limit for IUU fishing in major countries, fines and penalties can be imposed simultaneously on IUU fishing under the Korea Distant Water fisheries Development Act, and the limit is high, so it is necessary to review the easing of the maximum fine limit. Third, when fines other than Article 33 (Penalty) of the Distant Water fisheries Development Act are imposed, an amendment to the Enforcement Decree was proposed in preparation for the treatment of catches. Fourth, in order to increase the efficiency of the port country search system, a plan to produce a risk analysis matrix suitable for domestic conditions was proposed, as in the case of the United States. Fifth, for the exercise of authority of fishing surveillance, supervision, and control officials and port bureau search officials, the 「Act on the arrival, departure, etc. of ships」 and 「Act on the persons performing the duties of judicial police officers and the scope of their duties」related to port bureau search were proposed.Sixth, as a way to strengthen the follow-up management of punishment for captains who participated in IUU fishing, as shown in China's "Distant Fisheries Management Regulations", a plan to strengthen human punishment for individual captains was proposed. Seventh, in order to strengthen its role as a port state, it was suggested to prepare a revised 'pre-entry declaration' that requires more details on incoming ships. In preparation for rapid changes in the international maritime order, it is necessary to actively participate in international efforts to prevent IUU fishing through structural readjustment of the oceanic industry and education and promotion of employees in overseas fisheries industry.

Towards an international legal definition of the notion of fisheries crime

Over recent years, importance has been attributed to the application of criminal sanctions in the fight against IUU fishing due to the seriousness of the threat it represents for the conservation of marine living resources. This trend towards the criminalisation of certain activities related with IUU fishing has given rise to the appearance of the notion of fisheries crime, which is increasingly employed in certain international forums. However, from a legal point of view, this term does not define a new type of crime applicable to fisheries activity. Rather, it seeks to demonstrate that certain fishing-related offences are criminal in nature. Thus, it is important to define the scope of this notion of fisheries crime in order to determine what criminal offences are included within this category. Depending on its degree of connection with fisheries activity, fisheries crime covers three separate categories of crimes: the crime of illegal fishing, illicit fisheries-related crimes and crimes committed in the context of the fisheries sector.

Edge Technology Based Artificial Intelligence System for Ocean Patrol and Surveillance

The oceans are a principal source of biodiversity, and with a global seafood market worth over $120B, they’re a crucial resource to almost half of the world’s population [1]. Costing society $23.5B annually, overfishing caused by illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing) contributes significantly to this depletion of fisheries. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, IUU fishing “threatens marine ecosystems, puts food security and regional stability at risk, and is linked to major human rights violations and even organized crime.” In some locations, government-employed observers accompany boats to prevent IUU fishing [2]. However, even in wealthy countries, observers only monitor a minuscule percentage of fishing vessels. For example, in the expansive region of the Pacific Ocean from Indonesia to Hawaii, just 2% of fishing operations are monitored by observers. To combat the problem of IUU the experimenter developed an Edge Technology Based Artificial Intelligence System for marine protected areas (MPAs) using low-cost edge computing devices to track illegal fishing activity through AI-based image recognition services. The product is a solar-powered, inexpensive, edge computing and monitoring device mounted on buoys with a video camera and processor to analyze images using machine learning models. The model detects vessels, monitors their illegal activity in the oceans, thus reducing the overexploitation of fishing. The edge device does processing locally and sends relevant data to the database, reducing the need for processing vast amounts of images & videos centrally. A stealth Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (drone) with a pre-programmed flight path collects the data from buoys and reports predictions to ground stations providing 24x7 surveillance capabilities.The product has a broad range of potential applications to detect overfishing, piracy, smuggling, and instances of ocean pollution, including oil spills. It can also be deployed for marine surveillance, primarily supporting the national defense. The immediate application for this product is the continuous surveillance and protection of targeted MPAs by alerting illegal fishing activities to governments and NGOs in real-time.

A Case Study Analysis of VMS and Its Implementations in Small Scale Fisheries

The fisheries sector is really difficult to produce the catch quantities of small-scale fisheries because of lack of proper monitoring. Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) is an important tool that allows the government to monitor small-scale fishing vessel activities. Implementation of VMS in small-scale fisheries is a powerful solution for unauthorized data. VMS provide economic benefits as most of fishermen are nowadays equipped with smartphones. With the recent technological advancements, the VMS has improved and it allows integrated fisheries management. The present study focused on the role of VMS in small-scale fisheries and how the government is helping small-scale fishermen to implement such technologies through subsidies. The knowledge of small-scale fishermen about the technological advances in fisheries and the role of government in helping them to implement such technologies was analyzed through a questionnaire. This study seeks to explore the challenges faced by fishermen for implementing such technologies, whether they are aware of the government schemes and subsidies and their overall opinion about government services. It is observed that access to new technologies by small-scale fishermen is limited by their financial difficulties. The operating and maintenance cost of the VMS system depends on the functionality requirements of the specific system. The higher the functionality, the more expensive will be the system. Policies and programmes are developed by Fisheries Department and implemented through proper organizations to ensure the access of small-scale fishermen to new technologies. The future of fisheries management will depend on a whole ecosystem of new technologies. Keywords: VMS in small-scale fisheries, IUU fishing, fisheries management, small-scale fishermen, government schemes and policies

A study on international trend and Korean measures regarding Cape Town Agreement of 2012

ABSTRACT At the global level, regulations on the safety of ships are gradually strengthening. Comparing international regulations on the safety of merchant vessels and fishing vessels, fishing vessels did not have a relatively strong safety regulations compared to merchant vessels. However, the importance of fishing vessel safety is being emphasized internationally for various reasons, such as the increase in IUU fishing activities. The Cape Town Agreement of 2012 is a representative international convention on the safety of fishing vessels. Although it has not yet met the requirements for entry into force, but several member states, including the IMO Secretariat, continue to encourage the entry into force of the Agreement. For reference, the Republic of Korea is also preparing various fishery policies with the goal of ratifying the agreement in 2023. This paper briefly introduces international trends related to the ratification of the Cape Town Agreement. In addition, by reviewing the current status of preparations of the Republic of Korea for ratification of the agreement in general, essential preparation measures for smooth ratification and implementation of the Cape Town Agreement have been identified.

Pengaruh Relaksasi Kebijakan Transhipment Terhadap Kegiatan Penangkapan Ikan Ilegal (IUU Fishing

In Indonesia, transshipment is a logistical method to maintain the fish’s quality, but in reality this activity allows IUU fishing. Through the Regulation of the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Number 57/PERMEN-KP/2014, transshipment activities were banned because losses arising from IUU fishing were partially facilitated by transshipment; fish caught are not reported and not recorded. Transshipment covers the origin of the caught fish and how the fish are caught because the transhipment is carried out in the middle of the sea with minimal supervision, far from the port, and the fish are not landed. This policy was then relaxed through the Decree of the Director General of Capture Fisheries Number 1/PERDJPT/2016, which opened up new opportunities for transhipment but under the system of Fishing in One Operational Unit. This type of research is analytical descriptive research, using literature studies. This research shows how transshipment activities have a negative impact on the state's efforts to combat IUU fishing, and this often occurs even though a single operating system was introduced.