Pirate fishing and poor management are threatening to crash fish stocks in the Asia-Pacific region over the coming 10-20 years, warns a leading expert in international law.

Millions of dollars worth of fisheries investment and thousands of jobs worldwide are at risk, along with the health and sustainability of fish stocks and the marine environment, the United Nations says. Known more formally as IUU – illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing – pirate fishing has grown sharply in both international and national waters since the UN flagged it as a major global problem eight years ago.

One organisation which is out to find better ways to bring these 21st century ‘pirates’ to book, and sounder ways to rule the seas, is the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) at Wollongong University.

ANCORS is Australia’s only specialist research centre dealing with national and international oceans law and governance, maritime strategy and security, marine resources and environment and fisheries management. It provides high level policy advice to Australia and its neighbours in the western Pacific, Indian and Southern Ocean region as they, too, grapple with the growing complexity of sea law and issues like pirate fishing. Its members sit on leading international groups  such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), National Oceans Advisory Group (NOAG), International Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP).

“The critical problem that undermines the effectiveness of oceans governance is the inability of many nations to implement their obligations, either due to a lack of governmental capacity or a lack of political will,” says ANCORS director Professor Martin Tsamenyi.

“This poor implementation combined with the critical over-capacity of global fishing fleets and the trans-boundary nature of many fish stocks threatens to collapse key regional fisheries resources within the next one or two decades.

“Every year that these issues are left unresolved increases the severity of the management responses needed to bring these fisheries down to sustainable levels that provide optimum economic returns,” he cautions.

ANCORS carries out research and provides policy advice to Australian and regional organisations and governments on how to improve the effectiveness of international fisheries regulation. It is also provides training on the law of the sea, maritime regulation and enforcement and international fisheries law.

“Recent ANCORS work in this area includes supporting regional efforts in SE Asia to develop collaborative mechanisms to tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. We’re also reviewing institutional and governance obstacles to sustainable fisheries management and profitable fisheries development by Pacific island countries. This includes prioritising capacity building needs as well as providing international fisheries law training to Pacific island countries,” Prof. Tsamenyi says.

But ANCORS is also available to help the Australian fishing industry directly, as well as governments and agencies at home and abroad, he says.

“We can assist the fishing industry and its members to understand their responsibilities and identify weaknesses and gaps in fisheries arrangements that might undermine the long term sustainability of the fishery, reduce the value of individual fishermen’s access rights or of the broader fishery itself.

“Through our research and training we can provide industry with the tools and solutions to support better management, giving fishermen and their industry greater long-term certainty and increasing the value of their access rights and catch.”

Where fishing companies or the industry are considering opening up new fisheries, ANCORS can advise them about the likely governance and management pitfalls and strategic options available for resolving them.

ANCORS is chaired by former Royal Australian Navy Chief Admiral David Shackleton and its advisory board includes people like Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority head Virginia Chadwick, deputy RAN chief Admiral Russ Crane, fishing industry leader George Kailis and former customs head Lionel Woodward. ANCORS works with the following organisations:
• the Australian Department of Defence
• Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF)
• Department of Environment and Water
• Royal Australian Navy
• APEC Marine Resources Conservation Working Group
• Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA)
• Coral Reef Rehabilitation & Management Programme (COREMAP) - Indonesia
• Ministry of Marine Affairs & Fisheries - Indonesia
• Maritime & Ocean Affairs Centre (MOAC) - Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippines

Glenn Hurry, Executive Manager Fisheries with the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry, who sits on ANCOR’s advisory council, comments: “IUU fishing on the high seas has become a highly organised, mobile and elusive activity which is undermining the efforts of responsible countries to sustainably manage their fish resources. International cooperation is vital to effectively combat this serious problem. Using regional fisheries management organisations as a vehicle for cooperation, fishing states - both flag and port states - and all major market states, are now starting to take action to curb pirate fishing activity.”

Glenn warns that pirate fishing jeopardises the Australian marine harvest both inside and beyond the Australian Fishing Zone (AFZ), and can have a significant impact the long-term prosperity and survival of fishing industries and communities, he says.

“The recent incidence of illegal fishing of Patagonian Toothfish in Australia’s remote Southern Ocean Territories is a prime example of the damaging effects of unregulated fishing on the sustainability of stocks and the viability of the Australian industry. Since 1997, six vessels have been arrested by Australian authorities for illegal fishing in the AFZ, around Heard Island and the McDonald Islands in the sub-Antarctic, about 4,000 km south-west of Perth.

An example of how ANCORS has been working with our neighbours to improve fisheries management – and in so doing help protect Australia’s own fish stocks and industry - is its long term collaborative project on pirate fishing with Indonesia and the Philippines.

This began in 2001 with workshops in Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines where it was agreed  to develop and pursue joint research into pirate fishing in the region and to link up with the International Plan of Action on IUU Fishing. Further research assessed the extent of pirate fishing in the Sulawesi Sea, explored options for co-operation in tackling it and ways to raise public awareness of the problem in the Philippines and Indonesia. This led to a unanimous call for action by the Indonesian and Philippines Governments to tackle pirate fishing in the Sulawesi Sea.

In these and similar project, ANCORS is positioning Australia as a regional and international leader  in hammering out the sort of measures that will be essential if the world’s fish stocks are to survive the doubling in global food demand projected by the United Nations to occur before 2050. 

Julian Cribb is adjunct professor of science communication at the University of Technology, Sydney and edits R&D Review and ScienceAlert.