The Illegal Fishing and Organized Crime Nexus: Illegal Fishing As Transnational Organized Crime
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THE ILLEGAL FISHING AND ORGANIZED CRIME NEXUS: ILLEGAL FISHING AS TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME Lead Author: Dr. Teale N. Phelps Bondaroff | April 2015 Lead Author: Dr. Teale N. Phelps Bondaroff Co-authors: Wietse van der Werf Tuesday Reitano © 2015 Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and The Black Fish. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing. Please direct inquiries to The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime at: The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime The Black Fish WMO Building, 2nd floor Postbus 3329 7bis, Avenue de la Paix 1001 AC P.O. Box 1295 Amsterdam CH-1211 Geneva 1 The Netherlands Switzerland www.globalinitiative.net www.theblackfish.org This publication can be downloaded at no cost at: http://www.globalinitiative.net/knowledge-bank/publications/ Suggested Citation: Phelps Bondaroff, Teale N., Reitano, Tuesday and van der Werf, Wietse (2015). “The Illegal Fishing and Organized Crime Nexus: Illegal Fishing as Transnational Organized Crime.” The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and The Black Fish. Designed by Moo Graphic Design | www.moographicdesign.com Contents List of Acronyms 5 Executive Summary 6 Introduction 8 Methodology 10 Part I Introduction to IUU Fishing 11 IUU Fishing Defined 12 The Scale of IUU Fishing 14 The Harms of IUU Fishing 15 IUU Fishing Destroys Marine Ecosystems 16 Case Study: Failed IPO Reveals Widespread Fisheries Fraud in China 18 IUU Fishing Threatens Food Security 19 IUU Fishing Harms Legitimate Fishers 19 IUU Fishing Damages the Economy and States 20 Economic Costs of IUU Fishing 20 Case Study: Piracy, IUU Fishing, and Safety at Sea 22 The Drivers of IUU Fishing 22 The Failure of Fines 23 Fish Laundering, Transshipment and Ports of Convenience 24 Poaching Threatens Highly Endangered Porpoise 25 Fishing Subsidies Fuelling Overcapacity and Driving Overfishing 26 Methods of IUU Fishing 26 IUU Fishing and Tax Evasion 28 Flags of Convenience/Non-Compliance 30 Organized Crime and Razor Clams 31 Case Study: Wide Scale Manipulation of AIS Tracking Data 32 Case Study: Transnational Smuggling of Missouri Caviar 34 Part II IUU Fishing as Organized Crime 36 Environmental Crime 37 Growing Recognition of Illegal Fishing as Organized Crime 38 INTERPOL Most Wanted List 39 Transnational Organized Crime Defined 40 IUU Fishing as Transnational Organized Crime 41 The Death of a Sea Turtle Activist 43 Case Study: Toothfish Poaching in the Southern Ocean 44 Profle: IUU Fishers of the Southern Ocean 47 Case Study: IUU Fishing in West Africa 48 Bribery, Corruption and IUU Fishing 50 IUU Fishing and Money Laundering 50 Case Study: Violence and Drugs in the South African Abalone Fishery 51 IUU Fishing and the Mafia 55 Journalist Beaten to Death after Investigating Illegal Fishing 55 Case Study: Violence, Abuse, and Labour Violations in the Fishing Industry 56 Case Study: Illegal Practices in the Bering Sea 60 Case Study: IUU Fishing/Illegal Drugs Nexus 62 Conclusions 63 Part III Policy Implications and Recommendations 65 Policy Implications 66 Recommendations 67 Effective Deterrents – Confiscating and Destroying Vessels 71 Innovative Monitoring Solutions: The Black Fish’s Citizen Inspector Network 75 Citations 78 List of Acronyms AIS - Automatic Identification System MPA - Marine protected area AP - Associated Press NEST - National Environmental Security Task Force CCAMLR - Commission for the Conservation of NGO - Non-governmental organization Antarctic Marine Living Resources NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric CITES - Convention on International Trade in Administration Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora OECD - Organization for Economic Co-operation and COLTO - Coalition of Legal Toothfish Operators Development DAFF - South African Department of Agriculture, RFMO - Regional fisheries management organization Forestry, and Fisheries SUA Convention - Convention for the Suppression ECCAS - Economic Community of Central African of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime States Navigation ECOWAS - Economic Community of West African TAC - Total allowable catches States UNCLOS - United National Convention on the Law of EEZ - Exclusive economic zone the Sea EJF - Environmental Justice Foundation UNFSA - United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement EU - European Union UNICPOLOS - United Nations Open-ended Informal FAO - United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea Organization UNODC - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime GDP - Gross domestic product UNTOC - United Nations Convention Against GGC - Gulf of Guinea Commission Transnational Organized Crime GPS - Global Positioning System USFWS - US Fish and Wildlife Service ICCAT - International Convention for Conservation of VAT - Value-added tax Atlantic Tunas VMS - Vessel Monitoring System IMO - International Maritime Organization WWF - World Wide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife INTERPOL - The International Criminal Police Fund Organization Yaoundé Code of Conduct - Code of Conduct IO - Inter-governmental organization Concerning the Repression of Piracy, Armed Robbery ILO – International Labour Office Against Ships, and Illicit Maritime Activity in West and IPO - Initial public stock offering Central Africa IUCN - International Union for Conservation of Nature IUU Fishing - Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing 5 THE ILLEGAL FISHING AND ORGANIZED CRIME NEXUS | April 2015 The Global Initiative Against Organized Crime and The Black Fish Executive Summary This report presents evidence that many types of fish in contravention to the law are engaging in a illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing highly organized criminal activity. The recognition constitute a form of transnational organized crime, of IUU fishing as a form of transnational organized and that treating IUU fishing as a form of organized crime, rather than a regulatory or compliance issue, crime is vital for effectively combating this destructive is an important step in effectively combating this practice. IUU fishing is currently a low-risk, high problem. In addition to this first step, this report return activity, driven by greed, weak governance, recommends additional actions to be taken, which poor monitoring and enforcement, overcapacity, include: overfishing, and diminishing fish stocks. Because it is largely treated as a regulatory matter, IUU fishing t Strengthening international regulations has been allowed to flourish. Perpetrators are levied regarding shipping and vessels. This includes minimal fines, if anything, and are permitted to measures such as increasing port state controls, continue their illicit and profitable activities. confronting the use of flags of convenience, combating fish and money laundering, and Far from constituting a harmless lack of compliance cooperation aimed at tackling tax evasion on the with regulations, IUU fishing destroys marine part of IUU fishers. ecosystems, threatens food security, harms legitimate fishers and damages the economy and t Creating domestic legislation designed to state governance. This report presents a wide range treat IUU fishing as a crime. Taking measure of case studies selected from across the globe, such as ending the reliance on self-regulation, to argue that IUU fishing is in fact a dangerous reporting and monitoring. and highly organized form of transnational crime, and one associated with other illegal, violent and t Dramatically increasing the punishments destructive practices. for IUU fishing, including not only levying fines sufficient to serve as a deterrent, but also IUU fishers launch multi-vessel fleets on lengthy confiscating the infrastructure involved in IUU voyages to all the corners of the globe. They employ fishing, vessel forfeiture, ending subsidies to illicit sophisticated and coordinated strategies to launder fisheries, and imposing criminal and professional money and fish, and evade taxes. Along the way they penalties on offenders. enable their activities through the violation of labour and environmental standards, corruption, bribery t Signifcantly enhance monitoring and violence. Case studies also reveal connections and enforcement. This entails increasing between IUU fishing and human trafficking and information sharing and cooperation between drug smuggling. enforcement actors at all levels. Involving civil society in monitoring and enforcement, and This report demonstrates how IUU fishing more than utilizing innovative solutions, both technical and meets the criteria used in defining transnational strategic. organized crime: those who actively set out to 66 THE ILLEGAL FISHING AND ORGANIZED CRIME NEXUS | April 2015 The Global Initiative Against Organized Crime and The Black Fish By reconceptualising IUU fshing as a form of transnational organized crime, we greatly enhance our ability to tackle this global threat. When the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) reports that more than 90% of fsheries are fully or over-exploited, the need to end the peril of the multi- billion dollar global IUU fshing industry with its annual illegal catches of millions of tonnes of marine species demands urgent action. 7 7 THE ILLEGAL FISHING AND ORGANIZED CRIME NEXUS | April 2015 The Global Initiative Against Organized Crime and The Black Fish Introduction Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (IUU fishing) has long been considered a regulatory issue, a matter of different actors violating regulations, perhaps opportunistically