September 8, 2020 — A new paper calls for greater coordination by governments around the world to tackle the persistent problem of organized crime in the fisheries industry impacting the wider economy.
The “blue paper” published Aug. 18 by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, an initiative by 14 world leaders, highlights the extent of crimes associated with global fisheries beyond illegal fishing, including fraud, money laundering, corruption, and drug and human trafficking. They occur worldwide throughout the entire fisheries value chain: onshore, at sea, in coastal regions, and online, it says.
The paper says these crimes are profit-driven while depriving states of national revenue, threatening the livelihoods of coastal communities and endangering marine ecosystems around the world. The authors add that the perpetrators behind organized crime in the fisheries industry are companies with complex operational activities in many countries. Some of these crimes are corporate in nature, as in the laundering of criminal proceeds through offshore financial centers where ownership can’t be traced.