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Opinion Article: Illegal Fishing Impoverishes Argentina

ARGENTINA
Tuesday, December 16, 2025, 07:00 (GMT + 9)

Illegal Fishing impoverishes emerging nations, jeopardizes the sustainability of species, and, if it continues at the current extraction levels, there will be no resources left for future generations.

This practice cannot be resolved with Conventions, Congresses, and theoretical meetings, because these illegal extractions are not based on biology but on economic and security reasons, and because the main actors responsible for the continuation of illegal fishing are the great powers, who lead global captures outside of their jurisdictions.

Incredibly, no legal framework has defined what “illegal fishing” entails. We understand «Illegal Fishing, to be that in which fishing species are captured, without complying with international, national, and/or without official and/or independent regulation and/or if captured without control by the flag State in maritime spaces where the maximum sustainable catch has not been previously determined and/or damaging the interests of third States, by carrying out fishing operations on those species that interact or are associated or are migratory originating from the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) or migrate from the high seas to the EEZ; or, when fishing is carried out in invaded territories of third States (Malvinas case) and/or in dispute (UN Res. 31/49), where any act, of any nature, is carried out that threatens the sustainability of fishing species and/or contaminates the environment and/or threatens food security and/or sources of employment and/or the economy of the States».

«Also when it benefits transnational organized crime and/or tax evasion occurs due to lack of payment of taxes, capture or import or export duties and/or species are discarded in the sea and/or undeclared goods are landed or imported or exported evading customs duties and/or their actions affect the reputation of the countries or communities to which they belong, contributing to violating the legal regulations that ensure good fishing practices agreed upon in the Conventions to ensure sustainable business operations, biologically sustainable, and commercially equitable».

Illegal Fishing has existed since man found a way to subsist on this resource; but, in Latin America in 1952, the “Declaration of Santiago” was issued, which established a limit of 200 miles to combat foreign illegal fishing; although it was institutionally addressed 70 years ago in the first global meeting on sustainable fishing (UN Conference, Rome, FAO, 1955) with the purpose of preventing “unauthorized fishing”. After that, countless conferences and meetings were held to address the issue; but, illegal fishing persists and worsens and, to make matters worse, in 1999, at the 23rd session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI), the sophisticated technical term “Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing” (IUU) was “formalized” -in a non-binding instrument-, as if there were more or less serious illegal captures, weakening the scope and seriousness of this illegal practice. Illegal fishing is never declared or registered! What businessman or Fishing Captain would incriminate themselves? The FAO and its technocrats should repeal this denomination that hides the seriousness of Illegal Fishing.

All Illegal Fishing is serious due to its negative biological, economic, tax, food, and social effects! Illegal fishing includes discards on board; under-declaration or substitution of species in landings; uncontrolled transshipments; fishing for juveniles; the use of unauthorized fishing gear; extraction in prohibited areas; false yields in on-board processing; consumer fraud in the declaration of weights (excessive glazing, etc.) or false origins; tax evasion; over- and under-invoicing; fishing obtained with fishing subsidies and/or slave labor or using fishing to cover up drug trafficking, etc., and any other practice prohibited by fishing regulations.

Globally, 90 million tons are fished (aquaculture produces a similar amount), the FAO estimates that 30% of these are illegal; that is, 27 million tons worth around 40 billion dollars annually. For its part, in the Southwest Atlantic, 2.34 million tons annually are caught, of which about 540 thousand tons are discarded, which, added to the 1 million tons illegally caught, indicate that the total Illegal Fishing in these seas reaches 1,540,000 tons annually, amounting to approximately U$S 6 billion dollars annually, with extremely serious connotations for Argentina and its people. This does not include under-declarations and other evasion practices.

These illegal catches are carried out in the EEZ by about 880 national vessels; in the Argentine waters of Malvinas with illegal licenses from the United Kingdom using Spanish-British (58 licenses); Spanish (37); Korean (28) and Taiwanese (76) vessels, and, on the high seas, with about 450 Chinese (314), Spanish (24), Taiwanese (69) and Korean (42) vessels that fish the migratory resources of the Argentine EEZ.

Fishing carried out in the Argentine waters of Malvinas is illegal by application of UN Res. 31/49 and all Argentine and European Union regulations. It is inadmissible that this community, with Spain having recognized Argentine independence, tolerates this illegal fishing. Argentine officials, at least since 1976, are guilty of non-compliance with the duties of public officials for failing to initiate actions.

Further contributing to the general confusion, some officials from the Foreign Ministry; the Undersecretariat of Fisheries; the Federal Fisheries Council, and the Naval Prefecture consider the fishing of migratory resources originating from the Argentine EEZ on the high seas as legal. They do not understand that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) indicates that there is freedom of fishing on the high seas, not that resources can be freely plundered. With their erroneous interpretation, they support the position of foreign vessels fishing at a distance, also ignoring that the Convention was approved by consensus framed in international disputes over maritime boundaries and not resource protection, otherwise it could not have omitted an eco-systemic approach that would integrally protect, both in the EEZ and on the high seas. If the Argentine authorities do not internationally establish the illegality of fishing on the high seas, the discussion of rights and the recognition of illegality will never begin.

We have been saying it for years: “Argentina cannot consider the capture on the high seas of its migratory resources originating from the EEZ, and the associated resources involved in the trophic chain, as legal; because it would be ignoring the rights that Argentina claims in all its current legislation: art. 5 of Law 23.968 on maritime spaces and base lines; art. 2 inc. c of Law 24.543 on ratification of UNCLOS and, arts. 4, 5, 21 to 23 of Law 24.922 on Fishing. Furthermore, although there are more than 40 reasons to consider capture on the high seas illegal, three facts mandated in UNCLOS are not being complied with: first, when vessels do not have on-site control by their countries of origin (arts. 87, 92, 94), which happens with foreign vessels fishing in the South Atlantic; second, when fishing is carried out without previously conducting research to determine the “Maximum Sustainable Catch” that ensures captures in perpetuity (art. 119) and, third, if migratory species originating from the EEZ are captured on the high seas without agreement with the coastal State affecting its interests (arts. 27; 61 to 64, 116 to 119). Of course, this is compounded by fishing with bottom trawling nets when fishing on the continental shelf (art. 77) beyond 200 miles without national authorization. All obligations ratified at the FAO Conference on 31/10/1995 and dozens of COFI meetings”.

In Argentina, there is an incapacity and lack of political will to promote the eradication of illegal fishing, and, of course, there is no interest in eliminating it on the part of the main responsible parties who fish at a distance. 85% of this fishing is carried out by five countries: China, Spain, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, who occupy 25 million out of the total 37 million hours of global fishing. These are mostly countries that are members of the WTO, which promotes the elimination of fishing subsidies, making it unlikely that this practice can be eradicated. It is a dispute over protein and economics, not biology. Fools! Foreign vessels take high-value species: Patagonian toothfish, hoki, Patagonian grenadier, pollock; Illex and Loligo squid, etc. Fishing in Malvinas and on the high seas causes immeasurable and irreversible damage.

In terms of control, the work of the Prefecture is insufficient since it lacks sufficient means and, in our opinion, does not have the adequate strategy, and it could not have it because it believes that fishing on the high seas is legal. Satellite systems and other technological tools, as well as origin certification and traceability systems, are only complementary to on-site control. Without control on board and surveillance by maritime police of catches and “transit” in the EEZ of goods, there is no way to eliminate illegal fishing.

Multilateral Agreements in the South Atlantic are unviable due to the presence of the United Kingdom invading the maritime territories of Malvinas. It is possible to reach Agreements; but, the opinion of the coastal states, which are the truly harmed by the fishing of migratory resources originating from the EEZ on the high seas, should be given preference. To implement Agreements, independent observers with police power are needed on board; otherwise, we will continue to hear that “no illegal fishing enters the ports of Spain,” while thousands of tons illegally caught in the South Atlantic enter. Argentina must declare the “state of fisheries and environmental emergency in Malvinas”; put one hundred Argentine vessels to fish on the high seas to facilitate agreements; agree with Uruguay to end the logistical support it provides in Montevideo; agree with foreign capital companies in Argentina, etc.

The sovereignty and development of the people of the Argentine coastal region are affected. We must put an end to the grandiloquent conferences where the solution to the problem is theorized, and address equitable biological-economic agreements that guarantee this resource to all parties. Argentina must internationally pressure to end this scourge that is causing severe sovereign, biological, economic, commercial, food, and social damages.

Expert in South Atlantic and Fishing.

Former Secretary of State.

President of the Center for Latin American Fishing Studies (CESPEL)

President of the Agustina Lerena Foundation   www.cesarlerena.com   .ar

This article represents the opinion of the signatory. The opinion articles published do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of this medium. Fish Info & Services is an independent medium, open to the opinions of its readers. If you wish to publish, contact us at [email protected]

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