Illegal fishing as a climate crime

Solly Rakgomo | Monday April 27, 2026 06:00

This assumption of unlimited abundance shaped maritime law, global trade, and coastal economies in the same way. But nowadays, that historical error has come back to haunt us. Illegal fishing, previously regarded as a regulatory inconvenience, has become a silent climate-change catalyst and a neglected driver of human migration.

The origins of the issue can be traced back to the growth of industrial fishing after World War II. The development of sonar, refrigeration, and deep-sea trawling enabled the fleets to sail farther and longer than ever. Although the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) subsequently sought to bring order through Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), it was not very effective, especially for developing states on the coastlines. It was into this vacuum that illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing began, which is currently estimated to account for up to 20% of the world’s catch and costs coastal economies billions of dollars annually. However, the real price of illegal fishing has ceased to be an economic matter. It has become climactic.

The ocean’s broken carbon cycle

Oceans are the planet’s largest carbon sink, absorbing around a quarter of all the anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions occurring on the planet. Nevertheless, the position relies on complex, intricately balanced marine environments. Illegal fishing interferes with this balance at its most crucial stages by targeting large predatory species, including sharks, tuna, and billfish.

Climate scientists are increasingly concerned that climate stability and ocean health are inseparable. The “blue carbon” concept has ceased to remain theoretical and has now become a policy, as the UN Environment Program and IPCC have acknowledged the significance of marine ecosystems as long-term carbon sinks. Research indicates that seagrass meadows have the potential to store carbon at a rate 35 times greater than tropical forests, with phytoplankton itself contributing almost half of the total carbon fixation by the biosphere. These systems, nevertheless, rely on healthy food webs. The disappearance of large predatory fish due to illegal fishing disrupts such webs and contributes to habitat degradation and to the ocean’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide.

Sharks, often vilified or misunderstood, are mainly apex regulators. When they are removed from the system, it triggers trophic cascades, which, as mentioned before, alter entire food webs. When predator populations collapse, mid-level species proliferate, which in turn overgraze seagrass meadows and disrupt phytoplankton cycles. The habitats mentioned (seagrass, mangroves, and plankton) are amongst the most effective natural carbon sinks on Earth, storing carbon at rates far higher than terrestrial forests.

Thus, once the ocean is deprived of regulators, the sea’s ability to absorb and store carbon is indirectly undermined by illegal fishing. This means that it is not biodiversity loss but what scholars refer to as carbon leakage. It would not be wrong to say that climate change is not only emitted from smokestacks, it is also facilitated by empty nets. The fact that this dynamic increases the existing climate stress makes it particularly dangerous. Already, warmer waters, acidification, and deoxygenation are putting pressure on marine life. IUU fishing pushes these ecosystems far beyond tipping points. This, in turn, is making resilience into fragility.

From ecological collapse to climate migration

The effects are rapidly transmitted both by sea and shore. Communities along coastlines, including South Asia, West Africa, and the Pacific, rely on predictable marine ecosystems to provide food security and a steady income. In case fish stocks collapse, it lacks a safety net. Boats return empty, markets shrink, and debt rises. What starts as a seasonal migration of labor usually turns into permanent displacement.

This is what we term climate migration today. No floods, no hurricanes, just the very gradual erosion of livelihoods, which is very concerning, especially in this age where people are not completely recovered from the financial strains of the pandemic era.

The World Bank has already warned that climate change could displace over 200 million people by mid-century. However, one of the mechanisms silently contributing to that number is illegal fishing, particularly in areas where the sea is both pantry and paycheck. Furthermore, injustice here is stark. Foreign-owned industrial fleets often illegally drain value from the waters on which they are not reliant. The social and environmental costs of this are, in turn, borne by the coastal populations. It is a fact that climate vulnerability is now being outsourced and is becoming plausible.

Migration and political pressure are directly proportional, and in this instance, both are on the rise amid urban overcrowding, cross-border migration, and unrest in the region. Nevertheless, illegal fishing is still discussed as a fisheries problem, keeping it outside the context of climate adaptation or human security. This parochial thinking is exactly why the problem persists. It is not just a conceptual failure but an institutional one.

Theoretically, flag states have the duty of controlling ships registered under their jurisdiction. In practice, many operate as flags of convenience, offering registration without any real supervision. This helps vessels evade checks, change identities, and operate with near impunity, all of which contribute to the problem. Monitoring reports from around the world have shown a disproportionate association between vessels engaging in IUU fishing and weak or non-compliant flag states.

This collapse impacts the entire system of maritime governance. The lax enforcement is placing blame on the coastal states, as distant-water vessels exploit loopholes in the law by using advanced technologies. Despite discussions of accountability and equity, climate agreements permit a regulatory vacuum in the ocean.

Unless the issue of illegal fishing is addressed as a marginal offense, its climatic and migratory impacts are bound to worsen. It is worrying but factual that the oceans drained today will displace people tomorrow.

We have history to tell us that the myth of infinite seas was never sound. The distinction is in the scale of the harm and the speed at which it is pumped into the ecosystem and the economy, between the carbon cycles and human mobility. It is not only incomplete but also self-defeating and delusional to deal with climate change without dealing with illegal fishing. The individuals who participate in this crime should be informed about the issue’s complexity; whether or not it is useful, it is worth it.

If we fail to govern the oceans, we should not be surprised when the climate is destroyed, and people are forced to leave their shores.