Surveillance and information gaps in global fisheries

The article analyzes the problem of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, pointing out that the main weakness in ocean management is not a lack of law, but a break in continuity between the norm and its enforcement. The author corrects the thesis of a total lack of control, noting the existence of an extensive, albeit fragmented, surveillance system (VMS, AIS, satellite monitoring). A key challenge is the so-called 'dark figure problem'—a phenomenon where the actual scale of violations exceeds official data, and the number of detected cases depends on the intensity of detection efforts. Effectively combating IUU requires a precise distinction between crime and regulatory gaps, as well as increasing the administrative visibility of events at sea.