As a country, we import 90 percent of the seafood we consume. We work with various international organizations to protect and conserve global marine resources. This means that in addition to national laws, we enforce international laws, treaties, and agreements that the United States signs as they relate to areas under our jurisdiction. For example, we play a key role in the enforcement of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora when related to marine wildlife.
Examples of Our Work
Our expertise in environmental crime, criminal investigations, the fishing industry, vessel monitoring systems, and case management is consistently sought by the international community. Our special agents and attorneys regularly attend Regional Fishery Management Organization meetings such as the Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Resources and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas to provide enforcement expertise and legal advice on compliance issues and the development of new conservation and management measures.
We provided boots-on-the-ground, hands-on training to developing countries to help them protect their own waters. In 2012, our agents and analysts completed monitoring, control, and surveillance surveys for the six countries in the Coral Triangle—Indonesia, the Philippine Islands, Malaysia, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste—to assess what each of the countries is doing to protect its own Economic Exclusive Zone and what their needs are. Because the countries also share maritime boundaries, we used this information to conduct a transboundary workshop for three of the six countries in 2013.
Our agents have also provided training on the use of turtle excluder devices to Central American nations through the Organization of Fishing and Aquaculture in Central America and have provided training to Indonesian fisheries officials on implementation of the Port State Measures Agreement that would close ports of convenience to illegal, unreported, and unregulated vessels.
We are seeing increased recognition of international fisheries crime from other law enforcement agencies. INTERPOL, the world’s largest international police organization, created a Fisheries Crime Working Group in 2011 that conducted several test studies to assess the ability of INTERPOL to combat these types of crimes.
Combating IUU Fishing
Much of our international work focuses on illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, capacity building and technical assistance. We have a robust and growing international program, working with various international organizations in the protection and conservation of global marine resources.
Learn more about IUU fishing
Capacity Building
Capacity building involves providing organizations and communities the tools, resources, information, and information sharing avenues to allow them to solve IUU fishing issues, usually through technical assistance and training workshops. We provide capacity building and technical assistance to international partners and agencies through government to government interactions. Through a key partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development, we respond to requests for assistance in building enforcement capacity in areas of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands to combat IUU fishing, wildlife trafficking, and to promote sustainable seafood practices.
We also work closely with our Office of International Affairs and Seafood Inspection, the Department of State, Department of State International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, and other agencies to coordinate sustainable fisheries and wildlife trafficking assistance in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.
Learn more about anti-IUU fishing enforcement efforts
Law Enforcement and International Partnerships
International partnerships are critical to combating IUU fishing. OLE continually works to increase our collaboration with international partners. These activities include information sharing, joint law enforcement operations, technical assistance to increase fisheries enforcement capacity, and participation in meetings between two or more countries. We are enhancing our international activities in the following areas.
Information Sharing and Cooperation in Combating IUU Fishing
The heightened focus on combating IUU fishing globally has made international cooperation increasingly important. Organizations such as INTERPOL have created a Fisheries Crime Working Group to coordinate transnational operations to counteract IUU fishing. OLE actively participates in this forum as well as in routine coordination with other nations. These operations detect and intercept IUU fishing activity and trade in IUU fish or other protected marine species products.
For example, OLE closely coordinates with Canada and Mexico. As bordering countries with similar challenges in enforcing fisheries and preventing protected marine species trafficking, we periodically conduct joint enforcement operations. These operations use a location-based approach to monitor marine products being traded across our mutual borders. This prevents incursions into each country’s exclusive economic zone and lets us share information between enforcement agencies to intercept illegal products in trade.
OLE also has formal agreements with the European Union and Russia to share information and cooperate to combat IUU fishing and trafficking in IUU fish products. Under these two agreements, our countries meet annually to discuss and update cooperative efforts and milestones.
Technical Assistance and Training
OLE provides technical assistance through bilateral, multilateral, and regional cooperation. To enhance fisheries enforcement capacity, OLE engages in direct government-to-government projects. Additionally, OLE helps multiple national governments and organizations collaborate regionally to tackle enforcement operations across boundaries and build capacity through exchanges. For example, OLE works with the U.S. Agency for International Development to provide in-country training to government agencies in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand, among others. OLE and the U.S. State Department are also partnering with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to build capacity in several Caribbean and Latin American countries for implementing the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Port State Measures Agreement.
OLE also continues to work with the Regional Plan of Action to Promote Responsible Fishing Practices Including Combating Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing in the Southeast Asia Region. While OLE is not a member of the organization, OLE routinely works with its members and has coordinated training workshops in the region. OLE supports the organization’s efforts to enhance fisheries enforcement to combat IUU fishing and promote sustainable fishing practices in the region.
Additionally, OLE actively participates in and advocates for the International Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance Network. This voluntary organization is the only global organization specifically focused on fisheries monitoring, control, and surveillance practitioners—inspectors, investigators, and prosecutors. To develop effective communication, collaboration, and training, the International Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance Network hosts a Global Fisheries Enforcement Training Workshop. There have been five workshops since 2005, and OLE has attended each of these workshops hosted in Malaysia, Norway, Mozambique, Costa Rica, and New Zealand. These workshops aim to enable participants to build contacts with monitoring, control, and surveillance specialists across the world; learn about the most effective approaches to combat IUU fishing activities; receive exposure to new problem-solving strategies for IUU fishing issues; and build relationships for locating resources to detect or resolve IUU fishing incidents.
Participation in International Regional Fisheries Management Organizations
The United States is a member of numerous regional fisheries management organizations. OLE serves on U.S. delegations to annual and intersessional meetings to promote information sharing; develop enforcement and compliance guidelines; ensure effective and enforceable conservation measures are developed; work toward collective solutions to global fisheries enforcement challenges; and generate a standard for assessing violations of conservation measures. OLE serves on delegations to various bilateral, multilateral, and regional fisheries management organization meetings on enforcement-related topics. Some larger commissions that OLE participates in include:
Fisherman with tablet for electronic monitoring. Credit: NOAA Fisheries
A halibut catch at St. Paul Harbor in Kodiak, Alaska.
An endangered Hawaiian monk seal takes a nap on the beach on the south coast of Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i. The sign in the foreground instructs people not to approach the seal.
Green sea turtle. Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi.