Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing: How do Blacklisted Vessels Select the Country to Offload their Catch?

• In Event: Posters I

Abstract

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing generates billions of losses annually, and constitutes a threat to the long term sustainability of the world’s oceans. Using data from all countries in the world with coastal access, this study aims to explain how blacklisted vessels select the country to offload their catch. This study builds on previous research (Marteache, Viollaz and Petrossian 2015) that analyzed this same issue, but that only looked at countries that had been visited by IUU fishing vessels’ during the study period (N = 72), with an emphasis on the differences between developed and developing countries. Their findings showed that, among visited countries, IUU vessels showed preference for countries with weaker governance; as well as countries that afforded better opportunities to conceal the offload of the catch, and to quickly and inconspicuously dispose of it. The level of development of the country was not a significant factor. In this new study we include every single country in the world with coastal access (N = 153), and we compare the characteristics that differentiate the countries that were used to offload illegally caught fish, from those that were not.

Authors

• Nerea Marteache, California State University, San Bernardino

• Jared Stevens, California State University, San Bernardino

• Gohar A. Petrossian, John Jay College of Criminal Justice