It is no doubt that illegal fishing caused great damage to the fishing stocks as well as affected the respective industry badly. This exactly happened to New England groundfish. Weak enforcement of fisheries regulations combined with fishermen facing serious economic hardships have contributed to the damage of fisheries along the Northeastern United States coast.
A new study revealed that this pattern of noncompliance threatens the success of new fisheries management measures put in place to protect and restore fish stocks. Among their findings, environmental economists Dr. Dennis King of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Dr. Jon Sutinen of the University of Rhode Island detail nearly a doubling of the percent of total harvest taken illegally over the last two decades in the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery (NEGF).
According to the study the annual illegal harvest to be 12 to 24 percent, significantly higher than estimates of 6 to 14 percent in the 1980s. Dr King told that the one-two punch of weak enforcement and deteriorating economic conditions combined with declining faith in the competency and legitimacy of fisheries management is encouraging more and more fisherman to press their luck and fish illegally.
It is observed that the current situation has reached an economic and moral tipping point where the potential economic gains from illegal fishing far outweigh the expected cost of getting caught. To combat the problem, the authors recommend that a “smart compliance policy” be implemented in the NEGF fishery. The policy should employ different types of enforcement strategies and penalties for frequent, occasional and possibly accidental violators. Specific recommendations include aggressive targeting of frequent violators and criminal penalties and the forfeiture of all fishing privileges for certain types of violations.
