Illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing is a major contributor to global overfishing, threatening food security, maritime livelihoods, and fisheries sustainability. An emerging narrative in the literature posits that IUU fishing is associated with additional organized criminal activities, such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, slavery, and arms smuggling. We explored this narrative through a systematic literature review to identify the empirical evidence of the association between illegal fisheries activities and organized crimes. Here we show that there is minimal evidence of organized crimes being linked to IUU fishing. Due to the covert nature of both organized crime and IUU fishing, we supplemented the literature review with analysis of media reports on illegal fishing from 2015 to 2019. We reviewed more than 330 individual media reports from 21 countries. From this database, < 2% reported crimes associated with illegal fishing. The predominantly associated crime mentioned were violations of worker's rights, forced labor and/or modern slavery. We resolve the contradiction between the common narrative that fisheries and other crimes are linked by presenting three distinct business models for maritime criminal activities. These models explain why certain crimes such as forced labor are associated with illegal fishing, while other crimes such as trafficking or smuggling are less likely to be linked to fishing activities. By disentangling these crimes from one another we can better focus on solutions to reduce illegal behavior on the sea, protect those vulnerable to fisheries exploitation, and enhance livelihoods and social well-being.

中文翻译：

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非法捕鱼、海上犯罪和社会福祉之间的交集

非法、无管制和不报告 (IUU) 捕捞是全球过度捕捞的主要原因，威胁着粮食安全、海洋生计和渔业可持续性。文献中新出现的一种说法认为 IUU 捕鱼与其他有组织的犯罪活动有关，例如贩毒、贩卖人口、奴役和武器走私。我们通过系统的文献综述探讨了这一叙述，以确定非法渔业活动与有组织犯罪之间关联的经验证据。在这里，我们表明，有组织犯罪与 IUU 捕鱼有关的证据很少。由于有组织犯罪和 IUU 捕鱼的隐蔽性，我们通过对 2015 年至 2019 年非法捕鱼的媒体报道进行分析来补充文献综述。我们审查了来自 21 个国家/地区的 330 多份个人媒体报道。从这个数据库中，< 2% 报告了与非法捕鱼有关的犯罪。提到的主要相关犯罪是侵犯工人权利、强迫劳动和/或现代奴隶制。我们通过提出三种不同的海上犯罪活动商业模式，解决了渔业与其他犯罪相互关联的普遍说法之间的矛盾。这些模型解释了为什么强迫劳动等某些犯罪与非法捕鱼有关，而贩运或走私等其他犯罪则不太可能与捕鱼活动有关。通过将这些罪行相互分离，我们可以更好地专注于减少海上非法行为的解决方案，保护易受渔业剥削的人，