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Economic and Environmental Impacts of IUU Fishing
Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing poses a global challenge and has significant economic and environmental repercussions. The impact of IUU fishing includes economic losses, job losses, scarcity, price distortion, food insecurity and unfair competition, together with the depletion of fish populations and damages to the marine habitat. The most affected areas by this phenomenon are Africa, Asia, and Latin America

The environmental effects of IUU fishing
The environmental effects of IUU fishing include biodiversity loss, and damages to the marine flora and ecosystem, and are generally caused by illegal fishing methods, overfishing and bycatch.

Illegal fishing methods usually damage the seabed and the marine flora: fishing gears, chemicals, and explosions, can affect organisms’ growth and cause sediment transport, which blocks or reduces light, thus endangering the growth and settlement of oysters and scallop. Fishing gears and fishing methods in prohibited areas often damage the habitat, leading to environmental damage and fish detriment. Examples include the use of bottom trawling, which destroys sponges that take decades to regrow, and the use of fishing gears like beach seines and dynamite fishing, which highly damage the reef ecosystems and can kill up to 80% of the coral reef in the target areas.

The impact on the fish stock is an effect of overfishing and overharvesting, which can damage the ecosystem biodiversity and can create an imbalance in the food chain, thus affecting predators, forage species, and marine mammals. In addition, the catch of high market valued species, such as tuna and sharks, contributes to the depletion of fish stocks, causing both environmental effects and food scarcity. Bycatch further exacerbates fish depletion and ecosystem damage, because the catch is often left in the ocean, contributing to ocean pollution, harming marine life, and impacting the honest fishermen’ economy, who cannot sell that fish if they catch it.

Africa
In Eastern Africa, the coasts in Tanzania suffer the use of trawlers from foreign vessels, which impact the ecosystem, fish, and crustaceans, upon which artisanal fishers rely: this can create food scarcity, and possible job losses for the local fishermen. Moreover, the coasts are subjected to bycatch of turtles and dolphins. The problem of IUU fishing in Mozambique and Tanzania sometimes derives from artisanal fishermen themselves, who fish during closed seasons in protected areas, and buy illegal catch from other vessels, to process it and sell it in exchange for shrimps, which are overfished. The country also suffers the use of dynamite fishing, which destroys coral reefs, sea-grass beds, mangroves, and salt marshes, thus compromising the habitat. In Kenya, the overexploitation of some kinds of fish has led to a disproportionate increase in their forage, such as the sea urchin, which feeds on the reef, thus reducing the coral cover dramatically.

Asia-Pacific Region
Overfishing and bycatch in the Asia-Pacific region are destroying coral reefs and are depleting fish stocks, endangering the species by non-respecting the safe biological quota for fish replenishment. Moreover, the destructive fishing practices in the region involve the use of cyanide to poison reef fish: as a consequence, 56% of coral reefs in Southeast Asia are at risk, especially in the Paracel Islands, Indonesia, Chinese Taipei, Philippines, and Malaysia. Dynamite fishing has destroyed 50% of the coral reef in Southeast Asia, endangering the food security of the population who relies on fish as primary source of food and income.

Oceania
In Australia, IUU fishing is affecting biodiversity, and is leading to a decrease of legal fish traps in favor of the illegal ones. Illegal fishing is endangering the species of sea cucumber and oysters, leading to fish depletion, and damages to the ecosystem. Bycatch and illegal fishing are the main cause of turtle decrease in stock. The most endangered species by IUU fishing are scale fish, rock lobster, sharks and billfish. Bycatch in New Zealand has endangered the survival of the Maui dolphins, and dynamite fishing in the continent is killing corals that take centuries to rebuild.

Europe
Overall, bycatching in the European regions is threatening the extinction of many species, such as sharks, rays, and tuna. IUU fishing in the Mediterranean Sea is having significant environmental effects : for example, many species, such as shrimps and octopus are highly declining in their stock due to IUU catches, which also puts biodiversity at risk. Bycatch is extremely frequent, endangering species like dogfish and dolphins, while trawling is damaging seagrass beds and endangering endemic species like sponges, white sharks, and stingrays. Those activities not only are compromising the species, but are also undermining the fisheries in the region.

America

The main environmental effects in America involve the depletion of fish stock, the extermination of fish populations and the devastation of local ecosystems. In Ecuador, shark finning has led to the decline in size of shark catch, and overfishing is leading to a depletion of the resources; in Guyana, bycatch is endangering turtles’ survival ; in Chile, harvesting seaweed is destroying the marine ecosystem, and in Costa Rica, the use of dynamite as a fishing method is reducing fishing species, destroying the food chain and damaging the habitat. IUU in Cuba is leading to a decrease in lobster stocks, decreasing the fish population, and thus endangering the marine food chain, causing food insecurity for the population in the area. Illegal fishing during the spawning season is destroying the fishing reproduction and restoration in Panama. In California, bycatch is endangering many species of vaquita.

The economic effects of IUU Fishing
The economic effects of IUU fishing affect both the parties directly involved, such as the employment sector, the storing and transport sector and the stores, and indirect parties, such as the population and the government.

IUU fishing makes the global economy lose between $10 billion and $23 billion annually, and is valued up to $23.5 billion, placing it among the most profitable natural resource crimes. According to some studies, annual global losses due to IUU fishing account between $25 and $50 billion, tax revenue losses for countries are up to $4 billion.

The major economic impacts of IUU fishing are unfair competition, job losses, declining revenues for legal fishers, tax revenue losses for governments, poverty and food insecurity for artisanal fishers and fishing communities, price distortion and overexploitation of fish stock.

Unfair competition and subsequent job losses happen when legal and illegal catches are both sold on the same markets: the abundance of illegal catches drives the prices down, forcing legitimate and honest fishermen to sell the product at a lower price and bear the operating costs for conservation and management measures, ultimately endangering their profits and generally leading to economic deficit. Furthermore, because illegal fish in the market often lacks quality controls, this latter can compromise the overall brand perception, and thus impact honest sellers by devaluating the product. Illegal fishing activities within the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of coastal states by unauthorized vessels can lead to serious economic losses for both the affected coastal State and its industries, while local fishermen lose potential opportunity of catching and selling the fish in the market. Another economic impact concerns the loss of government revenue from license fees, as well as sales and export taxes: IUU vessels evade these fees and taxes, sometimes by transporting fish through other countries to avoid taxation, or by transferring catches to other vessels while on the high sea, thus reducing export earnings for the government, and resulting in losses for the transport industries as well.

Food insecurity is another effect of IUU fishing. Illegal fishing undermines the economy and human security of coastal communities, impacting the stock assessment by distorting the record of catches in that area, thus leading to wrong calculus on the fish exploitation. By un-reporting, IUU fishing often makes the countries set higher catching levels than the one necessary to guarantee the replenishment of fish population, which leads to food scarcity and endangers the survival of the species. As fish stock diminishes, fishermen struggle to meet the needs of their families and their community, resulting in economic losses and food insecurity for the coastal population, which relies on it as a primary source of protein. Consequently, countries are compelled to import fish for domestic consumption, resulting in additional economic losses.

The impacts of IUU are interconnected: as stocks decrease, the value of catch rises, thereby increasing the likelihood of overfishing, and illegal fishing.

Africa
In South Africa the value of IUU fishing for tonnages is 20 times the legal catch, and for the lobster resource, IUU fishing accounts for 25% of the total. In Eastern Africa, unsustainable fishing causes loss of income and a decrease in fish stocks; in Tanzania, in 2001 $20 million was lost due to IUU fishing, and in Somalia the IUU catches removed more than $450 million in fish value to the country. In the Western region, IUU fish loss per boat per year is estimated to be up to $3 million, and in Senegal, the country lost 2% of its GDP in 2012. IUU fishing in the region results in price distortion and unfair competition. Nigeria has a loss estimated between $30 million to $800 million from illegal fisheries. Illegal fishing is creating high risks to food security in the Central African region, and in Gabon is having severe economic impacts on the GDP.

Asia Pacific Region
In 2003, the value of IUU fishing in the Asian Pacific Economies was between $3102 millions and $7312 millions. Illegal fishing affects many economies in the region, and the degradation of marine environment by illegal fishing impacts ecotourism and contributes to loss of employment and nutrition for the populations relying on fish as primary source of protein. IUU fishing in the Asia-Pacific usually leads to tax evasions, money laundering and document fraud.

Oceania
In many Oceanian countries, fish highly contributes to GDP, and impacts the livelihood of domestic populations: Indonesia and Papua New Guinea highly suffer from economic consequences of IUU fishing .Illegal fishing presents a serious challenge to Oceanians countries, because it creates fish stock depletion, and endangers the marine environment. In Australia, IUU fishing is making the government spend a fortune on addressing the threat, thus highly impacting public spending : the country has been investing millions of dollars towards the fight against IUU fishing, which endangers the economies of the regions with limited financial capabilities, who must contribute to the public spending.

America
IUU fishing led to $2.3 billion losses in South America, together with $600 million income losses and $500 million tax revenue losses. IUU fishing in Jamaica impacts the local fish stock, and has caused $284 million losses in the past twenty years. The subsequent establishment of a fishing quota to guarantee the replenishment of the species has been endangering the local fisheries, and the overexploitation has created food insecurity for domestic consumption. In Argentina, IUU fishing has led to unfair competition among legal fisheries, who cannot compete with the foreign fleets that don’t pay taxes or licenses. In the Caribbean and Ecuador, IUU fishing and its environmental damages to the coral reefs has endangered the tourism in those places, who cannot attract people anymore because the marine environment is damaged by illegal fishing practices; moreover, IUU fishing in Ecuador is now leading to food insecurity in the region.

Europe
In the Mediterranean Sea, 50% of tuna and swordfish catch come from IUU fishing, while in the North Sea 50% of cod and 60% of all catch comes from IUU fishing. In the Baltic Sea, 40% of cod comes from illegal fishing, and in the Iberian coast 40% of tuna, leading to an overexploitation of the resources and loss of catch for the local and legal fisheries. In Europe, countries lost up to €10 billion from IUU fishing, €8 billion for stock value, and more than 27 000 people lost their jobs.