This report originates in the decision of a small group of fisheries ministers and directors-general of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to take the lead in actively promoting practical solutions to addressing the serious global problem of illegal fishing. In 2003 the High Seas Task Force was established to advise the group and finalise an action plan. The aim was to provide political leadership to drive forward much-needed practical initiatives that could be implemented immediately. The report recognises that ‘at its worst’, illegal fishing is a classic type of international environmental crime, at times organised, sharing many characteristics with other outlawed trans-border activities such as the trades in illegally logged timber and endangered species, and the illegal movement and dumping of waste products. The solutions that are proposed in the report comprise a set of practical proposals each intended to have one or both of the following effects: a) to enhance enforcement, sharply increasing the risk of exposure of illegal fishing operations and the potential for successful prohibition; and b) to make such operations less profitable, increasing the capital and operating costs and reducing the revenues from illegal fishing. Each measure is thus designed in some way to expose illegal fishing activities, deter them and improve enforcement against those responsible. In light of the conviction that action must be underpinned by corresponding political determination, the weight of the proposals is therefore on measures that can be implemented immediately by Task Force members and by like-minded states that, together, wish to demonstrate such commitment in a coherent international push against the global illegal fishing problem.
