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Why is illegal and unreported fishing difficult to control in the Indian Ocean?
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commercial fishing
Worker in the Tsukiji fish market, Tokyo.
Illegal and unreported fishing in the Indian Ocean is difficult to control primarily due to a lack of robust regulatory frameworks and effective enforcement mechanisms. While commercial fishing in international waters is managed by Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs), these efforts often struggle against the vastness of the ocean and the complexities of monitoring activities in remote areas.1
The challenge is compounded by the following factors:
- Enforcement Gaps: There is a persistent lack of adequate oversight and regulatory enforcement in wild-capture fisheries, which allows illegal practices to persist.1
- Tragedy of the Commons: International waters are frequently subject to the tragedy of the commons, where individual operators prioritize short-term gain over the long-term sustainability of shared marine resources.1
- Measurement Difficulties: As seen with bycatch, data collection is often unreliable because it relies on self-reporting or limited monitoring by observers, making it difficult to verify the true scale of fishing efforts.2
Addressing these issues is a moral imperative, as the failure to regulate these activities threatens marine biodiversity and the health of global food webs.1