Quantifying IUU fishing
- ©FAO/Kurt Arrigo
IUU fishing is a persistent and pervasive problem that undermines effective fisheries management and runs counter to sustainable fisheries.
Understanding the types and magnitude of IUU fishing is a critical first step to combatting it. This helps countries to be aware of the economic, environmental and social impacts of the problem, to draw attention to it, and to encourage the political will needed to fight it.
Quantifying IUU fishing is not an easy task, due to the quality and quantity of existing data which vary significantly from fishery to fishery. In some cases, it can be very difficult to make precise estimates that can be compared over time.
The most frequently quoted estimates of IUU fishing are based on a paper published in 2009. Following this publication, FAO commissioned a review of IUU fishing studies, in order to compare their strengths and methodologies, and to determine whether FAO should work to provide guidance for the future estimation of IUU fishing. The thirty-second Session of COFI supported the development by FAO of technical guidelines on methodologies and indicators for the estimation of the magnitude and impact of IUU fishing, which FAO has developed in subsequent years.
The resulting series, Methodologies and indicators for the estimation of the magnitude and impact of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, provides guidance for the estimation and tracking of IUU fishing at the local, national, regional, and global levels.
These guidelines cover key concepts and scoping principles, study planning and execution, a catalogue of estimation methods, and a simplified indicators approach that can be used in lieu of full-scale estimation.
These resources are best thought of as a toolbox — not every tool will be needed in every case, but together they can address a wide variety of IUU fishing scenarios. They can also be tailored to objectives ranging from monitoring the performance of countermeasures to stakeholder communication and regional cooperation. Further tools for biological, economic and social impact evaluation are planned.