Since I've observed a bunch of countries directly, it is more the following:
- Fisheries may not (historically or present day) be a huge part of their economy, and has therefore been neglected for years.
- Not enough infrastructure due to economic neglect.
- Huge revolving door of officials. One month you deal with one person, six months its another one. You don't know if they are real professionals, or someone placed there (party stooge, nepotism, you name it).
- No cooperation between fisheries/marine agencies, and navy/police/coastal guard.
- And, yes, some corruption I'd assume.
I have a concrete example:
We were invited to a developing country to assess their systems, and consult them on how to move forward. They were/are losing millions and millions due to illegal trawling.
Arrive at the HQ, which was a run down office where a handful of people were working. All data was shared via excel spreadsheets, no real systems to work on, lots of paper forms that someone had to digitize. Someone looking at MarineTraffic from time to time.
That's the state of some of these countries.
The illegal fishers are long out of their EEZ before anyone can react.
- Fisheries may not (historically or present day) be a huge part of their economy, and has therefore been neglected for years.
- Not enough infrastructure due to economic neglect.
- Huge revolving door of officials. One month you deal with one person, six months its another one. You don't know if they are real professionals, or someone placed there (party stooge, nepotism, you name it).
- No cooperation between fisheries/marine agencies, and navy/police/coastal guard.
- And, yes, some corruption I'd assume.
I have a concrete example:
We were invited to a developing country to assess their systems, and consult them on how to move forward. They were/are losing millions and millions due to illegal trawling.
Arrive at the HQ, which was a run down office where a handful of people were working. All data was shared via excel spreadsheets, no real systems to work on, lots of paper forms that someone had to digitize. Someone looking at MarineTraffic from time to time.
That's the state of some of these countries.
The illegal fishers are long out of their EEZ before anyone can react.