Global Fisheries Enforcement Training Workshop

Uncovering the Unknowns: Global Cooperation to Eliminate “the U’s” in Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing 

Fisheries enforcement regimes must persistently evolve and improve upon the MCS ‘tools’ used by compliance and enforcement officers to ensure they are able to continually illuminate and effectively address the “the U’s”. IUU fishing is a low-risk, high-reward activity, especially on the high seas where a fragmented legal framework and lack of effective enforcement allows it to thrive. As such, illegal fishers continually develop adaptive non-compliant strategies, advance counter-surveillance techniques, and opportunistically use loopholes in international and domestic law in their attempts to ensure continued high financial returns from their illicit activities. Enforcement regimes must also be equally adaptive to be responsive to these strategies.

Papers, presentations, and videos will address the following four themes:

• Cooperation and Partnerships; where we are ‘United in the Fight Against Illegal Fishing’;
• Risk Assessment and Analysis; where we look to ‘Uncover Hidden Activities’;
• Technology as an Enabler; where we are ‘Unwavering in Pursuit’; and
• Transparency; where we seek to ‘Unmask the Perpetrators of IUU Fishing’.

Participation is free of charge, but attendees must register online and be vetted before July 1 to confirm their link or relationship to State departments and Ministries of fisheries, regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), regional fisheries bodies (RFBs), regional economic institutions, or other relevant MCS organizations or entities.