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Unregulated Fishing on the High Seas of the Indian Ocean: The impacts on, risks to, and challenges for sustainable fishing and ocean health

This report presents the first study to use automatic identification system (AIS) data to examine the risks of unregulated fishing to ocean health. It also addresses the challenges faced by decision makers and regional management bodies to tackle unregulated fishing on the high seas of the Indian Ocean within the context of a failure to date to sustainably manage this global commons. The study discusses two institutional features that contribute to unregulated fishing on the high seas of the Indian Ocean: the gaps in spatial areas of competence and the gaps between the groups of species covered by regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs).

Characterizing Transshipment at-sea Activities by Longline and Purse Seine Fisheries in Response to Recent Policy Changes in Indonesia

To combat IUU fishing facilitated by at-sea transshipment, the Indonesian government banned the activity in 2014. Enforcing the ban, however, has been difficult due to the challenges of detecting and monitoring transshipment activities at sea. This study provides a suite of indicators for longline and purse seine fisheries in Indonesian waters as a useful tool to underpin monitoring, control, and surveillance activities to reduce IUU fishing. Through this analysis, the extent of increased enforcement and legislation managing transshipment puts Indonesia at the forefront of nations addressing IUU fishing.

A Review of Management and Reporting Trends Related to Transshipment Occurring within the IOTC Convention Area

The number of reported high-seas transshipment events in the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) Convention Area has increased by over 94% between 2014 and 2018. This growth in transshipment activity has not been met with equal management and monitoring regulations. The Commission implemented Resolution 18-06 requiring that all transshipments occur in port but allows large-scale tuna fishing vessels (LSTVs) to transship at sea if they are authorized by their flag CPC and comply with other specific requirements. However, this paper analyzes transshipment operations reported to have occurred within the IOTC Convention Area and finds that the resolution has flaws and that high-seas transshipment is increasing with insufficient monitoring and compliance. All of these problems are given a recommendation on how to address them.

The Tuna Commodity Frontier - Business Strategies and Environment in the Industrial Tuna Fisheries of the Western Indian Ocean

Liam Campling identifies a new tuna 'commodity frontier' that has a historical-geographical development with European fishing fleets (entirely in France and Spain) in the Eastern Tropical Atlantic and the Western Indian Ocean. In explaining how this commodity frontier came to be, Campling articulates two relations that function simultaneously at the point of production in industrial capture fisheries: vertical relations and horizontal relations. Capital has to adapt to a decline in relative ecological development, constantly holding in tension between the synthetic and the organic, coupled with increased competition between fishing firms. Together, these forces have created a commodity frontier with a clear history and provide a blueprint to analyze further capture fisheries.

When Fishing Turns Deadly - The Environmental and Social Impacts of Illegal Trawling in North Sumatra - EJF

Trawling is recognized as ecologically destructive and unsustainable and contributes to widespread IUU fishing in Indonesia. The number of trawlers is highest in North Sumatra, even though trawlers were banned in Indonesian waters in 1980. Indonesian authorities, because of bribery and corruption, have been unwilling to enforce the ban, leading to a rise in trawler activity. Trawlers often illegally enter a 3-mile zone reserved for traditional fishing activities. This invasion has led to ecological harm to the area, a decrease in stock leading to increasingly less income and a collapse of local fisheries, and most alarmingly, high levels of violence and conflict, sometimes leading to death. JALA is working with local fisheries to represent their needs to the Indonesian government and provide a solution for this urgent situation.

Squid Capture in the Northwest Indian Ocean - Unregulated Fishing on the High Seas

FISH-i Africa has identified an increasing number of squid vessels operating in the Northwest Indian Ocean (NWIO). The problem is that these squid fisheries are unregulated because the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (the region's RFMO) only has a mandate over tuna and tuna-like species. These fisheries are deliberately fishing on the high seas outside countries' EEZ zones to bypass national jurisdiction. The report gives a detailed account of the activity and characteristics of this emerging squid fishery and provides sound reasoning for immediate management frameworks to protect the region and the species.