Enforcement cooperation in combatting illegal and unauthorized fishing: an assessment of contemporary practice

The emergence of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the 1970s

placed potentially vast areas under national jurisdiction. From relatively

modest territorial seas close to the coast as the only basis of fisheries

jurisdiction for States, suddenly the international community embraced a new

form of jurisdiction over resources that extended to fisheries up to 200 nautical

miles from land. This extension brought over one third of the world’s oceans

under national jurisdiction, or more importantly, approximately ninety percent

of the world’s wild fish catch.

While the possibility of bringing the resources of these areas under

national control was of tremendous value to many developing States, the

difficulties of enforcement over such areas were not so readily considered.

Some States, notably the States of the South Pacific, but by no means

restricted to them, simply lacked the capacity to police their waters and protect

their resources from the depredation of others. A vast area subject to national

jurisdiction would potentially require substantial assets at sea and in the air in

order to effectively patrol, police, and enforce the new jurisdiction vested in

States. For oil and gas exploitation, deployment of few if any coast guard or

naval assets in the EEZ was not a huge difficulty, as exploitation of the seabed

is a slow and expensive business. For fisheries, which can be far more

cheaply exploited, and in a more transitory fashion, a lack of enforcement

capacity represented a potentially serious impediment.