Catching Up on Fisheries Crime

This article describes international collaborative efforts aimed at improving the global capacity to address fisheries crime, with a particular focus on the International Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance (IMCS) network and INTERPOL activities. These 2 initiatives have emerged as a response to existing governance deficits and, combined, substantially improve the prospects for addressing illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing (FAO 2001) and associated crimes. I describe the development of these initiatives and provide some reflection on their challenges and opportunities. I use the term fisheries crime to include illegal fishing and associated crimes, although the efforts described here improve the prospects for addressing all aspects of IUU fishing activities, some of which may not constitute legal violations (FAO 2001).