Following comes from RUSI’s Lieke Bos, Project Officer; a timely event NOT to be missed:
18 July 2017, 1000-1100
RUSI, Whitehall, London SW1A 2ET
The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) is delighted to invite you to the launch of the Occasional Paper ‘Below the Surface: How Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing Threatens Our Security’ on Tuesday 18 July 2017 from 1000–1100 at RUSI Whitehall.
The Occasional Paper critically analyses current understandings of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing as threats to our security.
It shows how much IUU fishing takes place on a systematic and industrial scale, across multiple jurisdictions, as a form of transnational organised crime. Such organised, high-volume IUU fishing can involve a range of violent and destructive criminal practices. In particular, there is evidence that high-volume IUU fishing can form part of broader processes of ‘crime convergence’. This occurs as IUU fishing offences intersect with other criminal activities, covering multiple illicit commodities, crossing multiple jurisdictions and violating multiple legal frameworks.
However, IUU fishing is often treated by governments as the result of technical regulatory infringements and designated a matter for industry regulators. Notably, it is often dismissed as a trivial issue insofar as it relates to national security. As such, this Occasional Paper calls for a paradigm shift in the way we view and respond to high-volume IUU fishing. To address the sophisticated and transnational threat it poses, large-scale IUU fishing must be treated with the seriousness it is due.
The event will be chaired by Commander Tony Long RN (Ret’d), Director of the Ending Illegal Fishing Project, who will provide his own insights based on longstanding experience in tackling IUU fishing through the lens of security.
Speakers will include:
- Cathy Haenlein, Research Fellow in Serious and Organised Crime, RUSI
- Lt Stephen Roberts RN, Future Operations TAA, EU Naval Force Somalia
- Peter Hammarstedt, Director of Ship Operations, Sea Shepherd Global
- Steve Trent, Executive Director, Environmental Justice Foundation
- Elsa da Gloria Patria, Chair, Stop Illegal Fishing
Copies of the Occasional Paper will be available at the event.
Tea and coffee will be available for all guests following the event from 1100 – 1130.
We look forward to your participation. Please register online or RSVP torusievents@rusi.org
