Estimating the Worldwide Extent of Illegal Fishing

By D. Agnew, J. Pearce, G. Pramod, T. Peatman, R. Watson, J. Beddington, T. Pitcher. PLoS ONE, 2009

1,044 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Illegal and unreported fishing contributes to overexploitation of fish stocks and is a hindrance to the recovery of fish populations and ecosystems. This study is the first to undertake a world-wide analysis of illegal and unreported fishing. Reviewing the situation in 54 countries and on the high seas, we estimate that lower and upper estimates of the total value of current illegal and unreported fishing losses worldwide are between $10 bn and $23.5 bn annually, representing between 11 and 26 million tonnes. Our data are of sufficient resolution to detect regional differences in the level and trend of illegal fishing over the last 20 years, and we can report a significant correlation between governance and the level of illegal fishing. Developing countries are most at risk from illegal fishing, with total estimated catches in West Africa being 40% higher than reported catches. Such levels of exploitation severely hamper the sustainable management of marine ecosystems. Although there have been some successes in reducing the level of illegal fishing in some areas, these developments are relatively recent and follow growing international focus on the problem. This paper provides the baseline against which successful action to curb illegal fishing can be judged.

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fc98b02cf41935e64d4077a198e8dc41d9d3d7e6

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Citations in the corpus

Climate change impacts on fisheries in West Africa: implications for economic, food and nutritional security (2012, background): “A global assessment of illegal fishing found West Africa to be an area of high risk with an estimated illegal catch of 40% above the reported catch (Agnew et al. 2009).”
Patterns, Causes, and Consequences of Anthropocene Defaunation (2016, background): “In the oceans, illegal fishing amounts to a multi-billion-dollar trade annually and involves millions of tons of faunal biomass (Agnew et al. 2009).”
The global ocean is an ecosystem: simulating marine life and fisheries (2015, background): “A factor that may contribute to a better match of predicted and observed catches is that observed catches are probably underestimated due to large illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) amounts being missed in official statistics (Agnew et al., 2009).”
When good intentions are not enough … Insights on networks of “paper park” marine protected areas (2013, background): “2012) and up to 20% of illegal fishing in the region (Agnew et al. 2009).”
Marine megafauna interactions with small-scale fisheries in the southwestern Indian Ocean: a review of status and challenges for research and management (2018, background): “These fisheries are rife in the SWIO region (Agnew et al. 2009) and so likely have substantial impacts on vulnerable marine megafauna species and marine ecosystems in general.”
Global catches, exploitation rates, and rebuilding options for sharks (2013, background): “The extent of illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) catch was estimated from the peer-reviewed literature [15] by taking the average of the low (11 Mt yr (1)) and high estimates (26 Mt yr (1)) for global IUU fishing, equivalent to 18.”
The future of food from the sea (2019, background): “In this setting, deriving appropriate management targets is even more challenging than usual (Agnew et al. 2009).”
Seafood substitution and mislabeling in Brussels' restaurants and canteens (2018, background): “…governing bodies, for instance through the reformed European Common Fisheries Policy (Council of the European Union, 2013a), overfishing and mismanagement issues can be exacerbated by illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing (Agnew et al., 2009; Pauly & Zeller, 2016; Petrossian, 2014).”
Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the need for transformative change (2019, neutral): “Illegal, unreported, and unregulated exploitation of fisheries undermine the effectiveness of stockmanagementmeasures, especially in developing countries, contributing to conflicts (33, 34).”
Levels and drivers of fishers' compliance with marine protected areas (2015, background): “Meanwhile, in the world’s industrial fisheries, estimates of nearly 20% of reported catch being illegal are probably conservative (Agnew et al. 2009).”
Poverty, sustainability and human wellbeing: A social wellbeing approach to the global fisheries crisis (2011, background): “extractive practices, as is demonstrated by the large amount of illegal and unreported fishing globally (Agnew et al., 2009).”
Assessing the Effectiveness of Monitoring Control and Surveillance of Illegal Fishing: The Case of West Africa (2017, background): “Previous work assessed illegal fishing in the region (Belhabib et al., 2012c, 2016; Belhabib and Pauly, 2015) to nearly 40 per cent of all the fish caught—the highest level worldwide (Agnew et al., 2009).”
Effective fisheries management instrumental in improving fish stock status (2020, background): “Where discards and IUU, artisanal and recreational fishing are 185 accounted for at a global scale, (9-12) it has been estimated that up to 34% of catch is missing 186 from landings reported to FAO (11).”