Illegal fishing: A challenge to fisheries management in Norway

Abstract

The management of the Norwegian Northeast Atlantic cod fishery has in many ways been a success story; quotas have been high (but now declining), profitability has been higher than most other industries and there is great interest among young recruits to enter the fishery. However, over the last decade illegal fishing of allocated quotas and black-market transactions throughout the value chain have become a significant of the political debate in the fishey, especially in northern Norway. Fisheries crime has been described as a priority area for law enforcement. To combat illegal overfishing the introduction of new automatic catch monitoring technologies onboard fishing vessels is considered a key strategy by the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries. However, the new quota control measures are met with considerable resistance by the fishermen. This paper outlines the key elements of modern fisheries management to address sustainability goals, how the institutional subsystems connect with each other, and how illegal overfishing may threaten the stability of the entire management system. The gravity of illegal overfishing supports the authorities’ new strategies to increase catch- and quota control. Nevertheless, the implementation of new control technologies may not be straightforward. Especially small-scale fishermen have presented a number of valid arguments against the proposed control measures. Thus, this study outlines how the implementation process may gain increased support from the fishermen.