Illegal Fishing in Arctic waters. Catch of today - Gone tomorrow?

Illegal Fishing in Arctic waters. Catch of today - Gone tomorrow?

Illegal Fishing in Arctic waters. Catch of today - Gone tomorrow? - WWF International Arctic Programme, Oslo, Norway. 2008, 52 pages

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is a global concern, costing nations upwards of 10 billion Euro (US$15.5 billion) annually. Few places are of such great concern as the Arctic, home to some of the most outstanding marine ecosystems and most productive fisheries in the world. Indeed, between them the Barents Sea cod fishery and the Russian Far Eastern pollock fishery alone account for between 20 and 25% of the global catch of whitefish.

Recent years have seen significant progress in reducing - though by no means eliminating - IUU fishing in the Barents Sea. A new WWF report, Illegal Fishing in Arctic Waters, finds, however, that it remains a concern in the western Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk in the Russian Far East. Moreover, globalization of the fishing industry has resulted not only in new markets and new governance structures, but also in new challenges and obstacles to combating the truly international criminal activity that IUU fishing has become.