The cost of being apprehended for fishing illegally: Empirical evidence and policy implications

Abstract

We first present a conceptual model for the analysis of the costs and benefit aspects of the risk inherent in IUU activity, then proceed to develop and present a map of IUU incidences as reported in the Fisheries Centre's Sea Around Us project IUU global database. This map shows that IUU activities are quite widespread geographically. We next present an analysis of the cost and benefit aspects of risks of IUU fishing, which reveals a number of interesting results, including the fact that for the cases analysed as a group even the high probability of being apprehended does not change the current favourable calculation of the potential net benefits of IUU fishing activities. Finally, we discuss three case studies using our conceptual framework, which allowed us to make some valuable deductions.