Fishing For Solutions: Criminalisation of IUU Fishing through Suppression Conventions at Global and Regional Levels

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is a global phenomenon that disregards fisheries’ conservation and management measures and exploits gaps in regulations and law enforcement. It causes significant economic, environmental, social and legal harms. The already significant harms are further exacerbated by transnational organised crime (TOC) dimensions in IUU fishing through the involvement of Organised Criminal Groups (OCGs) in transnational IUU fishing operations.

Two hypotheses will be tested in this dissertation. The first hypothesis is that the international fisheries instruments (the UNCLOS, the Compliance Agreement, the UNFSA, the IPOA-IUU and the PSMA) allow states to exercise wide discretion in designing and applying their regulations and enforcement systems and measures against IUU fishing. The second hypothesis is that the international fisheries instruments do not provide any solution in their provisions for addressing the involvement of OCGs in IUU fishing. The two hypotheses will also be investigated at the national level by using Indonesia and Vietnam as case studies.

This study argues that suppression conventions at global and regional levels could serve as solutions to supplement the international and national fisheries instruments' regulatory and enforcement deficits in addressing TOC dimensions in IUU fishing. A comparative analysis on the alternatives is provided, along with the recommendations on the best alternatives for criminalisation under suppression conventions at each level.