Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) is a broad term that refers to fishing without the permission of a nation state, or in contravention of its laws and regulations; unreported or misreported fishing; and fishing that is conducted in an area with no applicable conservation or management measures.
IUU is an issue around the world. The fishing industry observers believe IUU occurs in most fisheries, and accounts for up to 30% of total catches in some important fisheries.
Destructive fishing practices are fishing practices which easily result in irreversible damage to habitats and the sustainability of the fishery ecosystems. Such damages can be caused by direct physical destruction of the underwater landform and vegetation, overfishing (especially of keystone species), indiscriminate killing/maiming of aquatic life, disruption of vital reproductive cycles, and lingering water pollution.
Many fishing techniques can be destructive if used inappropriately, but some practices (such as blasting, electrocution and poisoning) are particularly likely to result in irreversible damage to the ecosystem. These practices are mostly, though not always, illegal (see also illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing), and even where they are illegal, regulations are often inadequately enforced.
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (freshwater or marine), but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques include trawling, longlining, jigging, hand-gathering, spearing, netting, angling, shooting and trapping, as well as more destructive and often illegal techniques such as electrocution, blasting and poisoning.
The term fishing is also used more broadly to include catching aquatic animals other than fish, such as crustaceans (shrimp/lobsters/crabs), shellfish, cephalopods (octopus/squid) and echinoderms (starfish/sea urchins). The term is not normally applied to harvesting fish raised in controlled cultivations (fish farming). Nor is it normally applied to hunting aquatic mammals, where terms like whaling and sealing are used instead.
Maritime security is an umbrella term informed to classify issues in the maritime domain that are often related to national security, marine environment, economic development, and human security. This includes the world's oceans but also regional seas, territorial waters, rivers and ports, where seas act as a “stage for geopolitical power projection, interstate warfare or militarized disputes, as a source of specific threats such as piracy, or as a connector between states that enables various phenomena from colonialism to globalization”. The theoretical concept of maritime security has evolved from a narrow perspective of national naval power projection towards a buzzword that incorporates many interconnected sub-fields. The definition of the term maritime security varies and while no internationally agreed definition exists, the term has often been used to describe both existing, and new regional and international challenges to the maritime domain. The buzzword character enables international actors to discuss these new challenges without the need to define every potentially contested aspect of it. Maritime security is of increasing concern to the global shipping industry, where there are a wide range of security threats and challenges. Some of the practical issues clustered under the term of maritime security include crimes such as piracy, armed robbery at sea, trafficking of people and illicit goods, illegal fishing or marine pollution. War, warlike activity, maritime terrorism and interstate rivalry (such as the Territorial disputes in the South China Sea or conflict in the Strait of Hormuz) are also maritime security concerns.
While a concern throughout history for nation states, maritime security has evolved significantly since the early 2000s, when in particular concerns over terrorist attacks on port facilities sparked interest in security in the maritime domain and led to the creation of the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code. The ISPS Code is enforced through Chapter XI-2 of the SOLAS Convention. Most littoral states and international organisations have also outlined maritime security strategies. It is in particular piracy in Southeast Asia, off the coast of Somalia and in West Africa which has triggered recognition for the detrimental effects of maritime insecurities for economic development, human security as well as the environment. Maritime security is often transnational and goes beyond the maritime domain itself (see liminality). It is characterized as being cross-jurisdictional and/or highly jurisdictional complex.
A conventional idea of a sustainable fishery is that it is one that is harvested at a sustainable rate, where the fish population does not decline over time because of fishing practices. Sustainability in fisheries combines theoretical disciplines, such as the population dynamics of fisheries, with practical strategies, such as avoiding overfishing through techniques such as individual fishing quotas, curtailing destructive and illegal fishing practices by lobbying for appropriate law and policy, setting up protected areas, restoring collapsed fisheries, incorporating all externalities involved in harvesting marine ecosystems into fishery economics, educating stakeholders and the wider public, and developing independent certification programs.
Some primary concerns around sustainability are that heavy fishing pressures, such as overexploitation and growth or recruitment overfishing, will result in the loss of significant potential yield; that stock structure will erode to the point where it loses diversity and resilience to environmental fluctuations; that ecosystems and their economic infrastructures will cycle between collapse and recovery; with each cycle less productive than its predecessor; and that changes will occur in the trophic balance (fishing down marine food webs).
The kaluga (Sinosturio dauricus), also known as the river beluga, is a large predatory sturgeon found in the Amur River basin from Russia to China and near Hokkaido in Japan. With a maximum size of at least 1,000 kg (2,205 lb) and 5.6 m (18 ft), the kaluga is one of the biggest of the sturgeon family. Unike the slightly larger beluga, this fish has five major rows of dermal scutes and feeds on salmon and other fish in the Amur with nail-like teeth in its jaws. They have grey-green to black backs with a yellowish green-white underbelly. Akin to the beluga, it spends part of its life in salt water, being semi-anadromous.
The kaluga has been hunted to near extinction for its valuable roe. Despite constant anti-poaching patrols, poachers still continue to catch the fish. In Russia, illegally fishing for kaluga anywhere on the Amur River is a felony punishable by law. However, kalugas are known to have an aggressive nature, and instances of them toppling fishing boats and drowning fishermen have been reported, although no concrete evidence exists of them assaulting or hunting people.