International law in this field is evolving very slowly and has several grey areas that remain unchallenged, and there is the continuing problem of flag states that allow rogue vessels to operate under their flags.
At the same time, there are links between illegal fishing and other problems; poor governance in some parts of the world, corruption and the shadow of forced labour and exploitation that go hand-in-hand with dubious fishing activities.
It’s an acronym that’s everywhere; Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated. The concept of IUU fishing arose following the extension of national EEZs through the 1980s, as nations with more waters to monitor once limits had been pushed out to 200 miles started to notice activity in areas that maybe hadn’t been previously watched as carefully, often fishing activity that had been going on for years in what had until then been international waters beyond the monitoring remit of national agencies.
The IUU term came about during the 1990s when...
