| English | Fishing is a unique enterprise in the world of maritime commerce. No other legitimate business but the harvest of living marine resources (LMRs), demands on-sight inspections in the most remote regions of the oceans to accomplish regulation. Historically the high seas vessel boarding has lead to the most dramatic fisheries incidents of the last three centuries. The intercept of a fishing vessel engaged in business of catching, processing, transferring or transporting its product on the high seas by an authorized officer embarked on a properly commissioned enforcement patrol vessel has always been viewed as a primary method to determine the level of compliance by that vessel with relevant management measures enacted at a national, regional, or even global level. Fishing vessels of one Flag State challenging the jurisdiction of the officers embarked on a patrol craft from a Coastal State to exert its control over fishing activities are fairly common during the last fifty years. Since the end of the Second World War and the dramatic expansion of high seas fishing and the concurrent birth of international conventions and regional fishery management organizations to regulate and control that fishing, there has been a long standing effort to define, harmonize, and quantify high seas fishing vessel boarding and inspection (B&I) schemes. |
