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The 2009 Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) was the first legally binding international instrument to
empower port States to deny foreign vessels suspected of having engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing from using their ports and to land catches. This paper builds upon previous work analyzing 2020 AIS data to rank fishing ports globally and assessing evolving port State risk and port States performance in PSMA implementation.

This report reviews the transshipment measures of the five tuna RFMOs plus SEAFO and CCAMLR. Although each tuna RFMO generally prohibits at-sea transshipment except for large-scale longline fishing vessels with 100% observer coverage on the carrier vessels, their relationship, the report finds, with other MCS measures leaves multiple gaps and shortfalls. Through the analysis of non-tuna RFMO transshipment measures in critical comparison to the many shortfalls found with existing measures in tuna RFMOs, the report gives detailed recommendations to improve and strengthen tuna RFMO transshipment regulations.

This report discusses the threat of erroneous data available to MCS practitioners which can in turn lead to poor decision making, loss of credibility and potentially the loss of independent and worthy technological projects.

The authors of the report emphasise the need for accurate, reliable data and reporting with scrutiny from peers to prove rigorous analysis.

This paper presents a conceptual model for the analysis of the costs and benefit aspects of the risk inherent in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) activity. The researchers use data to analyze the cost and benefit aspects of risks of IUU fishing. A key result of the study is that for the cases analyzed as a group; the expected benefits from IUU fishing far exceed the expected cost of being apprehended. For an assumed 1 in 5 chance of being apprehended, the researchers calculate that reported fines for the vessels apprehended will have to be increased by 24 times for the expected cost to be at least as much as the expected benefits.