This essay adopts an interdisciplinary approach to consider the meaning of “eco-crime” in the aquatic environment and draws on marine science, the study of criminal law and environmental law, and the criminology of environmental harms. It reviews examples of actions and behaviors of concern, such as offences committed by transnational organized crime and the legal and illegal over-exploitation of marine resources, and it discusses responses related to protection, prosecution and punishment, including proposals for an internationally accepted and enforced law of ecocide. One key element of the policy and practice of ending ecocide is the call to prioritize the adoption of technologies that are benign and renewable. Our essay concludes with a description of the “Almadraba” method of fishing to illustrate that there are ways in which the principles of sustainability and restoration can be applied in an ethical and just way in the context of modern fisheries.
AbidN.BenchouchaS.BelcaidS.LamtaiA.El FanichiC. (2012). Moroccan tuna traps: History and current situation. Collective Volume of Scientific Papers ICCAT, 67(1), 124–138.
2.
AddisP.SecciM.LocciI.CauA.SabatiniA. (2012). Analysis of Atlantic bluefin tuna catches from the last Tonnara in the Mediterranean Sea: 1993–2010. Fisheries Research, 127(128), 133–41.
3.
AddisP.SecciM.BiancacciC.LoddoD.CuccuD.PalmasF.SabatiniA. (2016). Reproductive status of Atlantic bluefin tuna, Thunnusthynnus, during migration off the coast of Sardinia (western Mediterranean). Fisheries Research, 181, 137–147.
4.
AgnewD.-J.PearceJ.PramodG.PeatmanT.WatsonR.BeddingtonJ.-R.PitcherT.-J. (2009). Estimating the worldwide extent of illegal fishing. PLoS ONE, 4(2), 1–8, e4570. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004570
5.
BaucellsL.PetitB. (2013). Possibilities and limits of environmental criminal protection. Reflections on the Erika and Prestige cases (or how an organized irresponsibility system carries on) (InDret/Revista Para el Análisis del Derecho 3/2013). Retrieved from https://ddd.uab.cat/record/196942
6.
BearziG. (2020). Marine biology in a violated planet: From science to conscience. Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics, 20, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3354/esep00189
7.
BelhabibD.Le BillonP. (2020). Editorial: Illegal fishing as a trans-national crime. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, 162. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00162
8.
BennettN.Cisneros-MontemayorA.BlytheJ.SilverJ.SinghG.AndrewsN.CalòA.ChristieP.Di FrancoA.FinkbeinerE.GelcichS.GuidettiP.HarperS.HotteN.KittingerJ.Le BillonP.ListerJ.Lopez de la LamaR.MckinleyE.. . . SumailaR. (2019). Towards a sustainable and equitable blue economy. Nature Sustainability, 2(11), 991–993. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0404-1
9.
BeratL. (1993). Defending the right to a healthy environment: Towards a crime of genocide in international law. Boston University International Law Journal, 11(2), 327–348.
10.
BergJ.GeoffroyM.DaaseM.CottierF.PriouP.CohenJ. H.JohnsenG.McKeeD.KostakisI.RenaudP. E.VogedesD.AndersonP.LastK. S.GauthierS. (2020). Artificial light during the polar night disrupts Arctic fish and zooplankton behaviour down to 200m depth. Communications Biology, 3(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-0807-6
BoyleA. (2012). Human rights and the environment: Where next?European Journal of International Law, 23(3), 613–642.
14.
BrismanA. (2003). A less tragic commons?: Using harvester and processor quotas to address crab overfishing. Seattle University Law Review, 26(4), 929–978.
15.
BrismanA. (2011). United Nations conference on law of the sea. In ChatterjeeD. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of global justice (Vol. 2, pp. 1103–1104). Springer.
16.
BrismanA. (2013). Not a bedtime story: Climate change, neoliberalism, and the future of the Arctic. Michigan State International Law Review, 22(1), 241–289.
17.
BrismanA. (2014a). Environmental and human rights. In BruinsmaG.WeisburdD. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of criminology and criminal justice (pp. 1344–1353). Springer Verlag.
18.
BrismanA. (2014b). Of theory and meaning in green criminology. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 3(2), 21–34.
19.
BrismanA.SouthN. (2018). Autosarcophagy in the Anthropocene and the obscenity of an epoch. In HolleyC.ShearingC. (Eds.), Criminology and the Anthropocene (pp. 25–49). Routledge.
20.
BrismanA.SouthN. (2019a, February28). A criminology of extinction: Biodiversity, extreme consumption and the vanity of species resurrection. European Journal of Criminology, 17(6), 918–935https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370819828307
21.
BrismanA.SouthN. (2019b). Green criminology and environmental crimes and harms. Sociology Compass, 13(1), e12650. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12650
22.
BrismanA.SouthN. (Eds.). (2020). Routledge international handbook of green criminology (2nd ed.). Routledge.
23.
BrismanA.McClanahanB.SouthN.WaltersR. (2018). Water, crime and security in the twenty-first century: Too dirty, too little, too much. Palgrave Macmillan.
24.
BrownJ.MacfaydenG. (2007) Ghost fishing in European waters: Impacts and management response. Marine Policy, 31(4), 488–504.
25.
BrownellR. L.Jr.ReevesR. R.ReadA. J.SmithB. D.ThomasP. O.RallsK.AmanoM.BerggrenP.ChitA. M.CollinsT.CurreyR.DolarM. L. L.GenovT.HobbsR. C.KrebD.MarshH.ZhigangM.PerrinW. F.. . . WangJ. Y. (2019). Review: Bycatch in gillnet fisheries threatens Critically Endangered small cetaceans and other aquatic megafauna. ESR Special: Marine vertebrate bycatch: Problems and solutions. Endangered Species Research, 40, 285–296. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00994
CohenM. A. (2018). The commission for environmental cooperation: Working on oceans and mangroves. In Sosa-NunezG. (Ed.), Widening the scope of environmental policies in North America: Toward blue approaches (pp. 77–91). Palgrave Macmillan.
30.
CohenP.AllisonE.AndrewN.CinnerJ.EvansL.FabinyiM.GarcesL.HallS.HicksC.HughesT.JentoffS.MillsD.MasuR.MbaruE.RatnerB. (2019). Securing a just space for small-scale fisheries in the blue economy. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, 171-1–171-8.
31.
CollinsV. E. (2015). Somalis fight back: Environmental degradation and the Somali Pirate. In BrismanA.SouthN.WhiteR. (Eds.), Environmental crime and social conflict: Contemporary and emerging issues (pp. 153–173). Ashgate.
32.
CorrienteF. (2008). Dictionary of Arabic and allied loanwords: Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician and Kindred Dialects. Brill.
33.
CortJ. L.AbaunzaP. (2019). The bluefin tuna fishery in the Bay of Biscay. Its relationship with the crisis of catches of large specimens in the East Atlantic fisheries from the 1960s. Springer Briefs in Biology. Springer International Publishing.
34.
CostelloC.CaoL.GelcichS.Cisneros-MataM. A.FreeC. M.FroehlichH. E.GoldenC. D.IshimuraG.MalerJ.Macadam-SomerI.ManginT.MelnychukM. C.MiyaharaM.de MoorC. L.NaylorR.NøstbakkenL.OjeaE.O’ReillyE.ParmaA. M.. . . LubchencoJ. (2020, August19). The future of food from the sea. Nature, 588, 95–100. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2616-y
35.
CoulterA.CashionT.Cisneros-MontemayorA.-M.PopovS.TsuiG.Le ManachF.SchillerL.PalomaresM.-L.ZellerD.PaulyD. (2020). Using harmonized historical catch data to infer the expansion of global tuna fisheries. Fisheries Research, 221, 105379.
36.
CramerW.GuiotJ.FaderM.GarrabouJ.GatussoJ.-P.IglesiasA.LangeM.LionelloP.LlasatM.PazS.PeñuelasJ.SnoussiM.ToretiA.TsimplisM. N.XoplakiE. (2018). Climate change and interconnected risks to sustainable development in the Mediterranean. Nature Climate Change, 8(11), 972–980.
37.
DaytonP. K.ThrushS. F.AgardyM. T.HofmanR. J. (1995). Environmental effects of marine fishing. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 5(3), 205–232.
38.
DentonG. L.HarrisJ. R. (2019). The impact of illegal fishing on maritime piracy: Evidence from West Africa. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 44(11), 938–957https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2019.1594660
39.
Diccionario de la Real Academia Española. (2014).“Almadraba.” In Diccionario de la Lengua Española, 23.ª ed. [23.3 version]. https://dle.rae.es/almadraba
40.
Díez-RipollésJ. L. (2019). Rationality in criminal law making. Rational decision making in a complex socio-legislative process. In Oliver-LalanaD. (Ed.), Conceptions and misconceptions of legislation (pp. 51–80). Springer.
41.
Di NataleA. (2012). An iconography of tuna traps. Essential information for the understanding of the technological evolution of this ancient fishery. Collective Volume of Scientific Papers ICCAT, 67(1), 33–74.
42.
Di NataleA. (2018). An updated bibliography on bluefin tuna trap fishery. Collective Volume of Scientific Papers ICCAT, 74(6), 2942–3036.
DudleyN. (Ed.). (2008). Guidelines for applying protected area management categories. IUCN. With StoltonS.ShadieP.DudleyN. (2013). IUCN WCPA best practice guidance on recognising protected areas and assigning management categories and governance types (Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No. 21). IUCN. https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/PAG-021.pdf
45.
EmeryK. B. (2010). Tonnare in Italy: Science, history and culture of Sardinian tuna fishing. California Italian Studies, 1(1), 1–40. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2nm2b772
Fajardo del CastilloT. (2015). Organised crime and environmental crime: Analysis of EU legal instruments. Study in the framework of the EFFACE research project. University of Granada.
48.
FalkR. A. (1973). Environmental warfare and ecocide - facts, appraisal, and proposals. In MarekT. (Ed.), Bulletin of peace proposals 1973 (Vol. 1, pp. 80–96). Universitersforlaget.
49.
Florido del CorralD. (2018). What it takes to be the captain of a Tuna Trap: Practice, knowledge and skills for the sustainability of an age-old mode of fishing. In Bermúdez-FigueroaE.RocaB. (Eds.), Andalusia: History, society and diversity (pp. 29–55). Nova Science.
50.
Florido del CorralD. (2005). Evolución histórica y cultural de las almadrabas en el litoral atlántico meridional (siglos XVI-XX). QuadernsBlaus (13). Museu de la Pesca.
51.
FrankV. (2005). Consequences of the prestige sinking for European and International Law. The International Journal of Marine and CoastalLaw, 20(1), 1–64.
García RuizA. (2014). Dos caras de un mismo tipo. A propósito del delito ecológico en dos supuestos: Caso Prestige y caso de la pianista ruidosa (desproporción en cuanto al resultado fáctico, víctimas y bien jurídico protegido). Revista La Ley Penal, 109(11), 82–89.
54.
García RuizA. (2017). Green criminology. El ruido: Un intruso en el Derecho penal medioambiental. BdeF.
55.
García RuizA. (2018) Del Ecocidio y los procesos migratorios a la opacidad de la victimización ecológica. Revista Electrónica de Ciencia Penal y Criminología, 20(11), 1–44. http://criminet.ugr.es/recpc/20/recpc20-11.pdf
56.
García VargasE.Floridodel CorralD. (2010, November2007). The origin and development of tuna fishing nets (Almadrabas). In: Bekker-NielsenT.Bernal CasasolaD (Eds.), Ancient nets and fishing gear. Proceedings of the international workshop on “Nets and Fishing Gear in Classical Antiquity: A First Approach” (pp. 205–227), Cadiz. Universidad de Cádiz and Aarhus University Press.
57.
GaugerA.Rabatel-FernelM. P.KulbickiL.ShortD.HigginsP. (2012). Ecocide is the missing 5th crime against peace. The Ecocide Project: Human Rights Consortium, School of Advanced Study, University of London. http://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/4686/
GiovanniniN.MelicaL.CukaniE.GiannottaM.ZingoniM. (2013). Addressing environmental crimes and marine pollution in the EU. Legal guidelines and case studies. Droit au Droit. https://www.dadinternational.org/images/PDF/Guide-Web.pdf
GrayM. A. (1996). The international crime of ecocide. California Western International Law Journal, 26(2), 215–271.
62.
GreifeM.StreteskyP. B. (2013). Crude laws: Treadmill of production and state variations in civil and criminal liability for oil discharges in navigable waters. In SouthN.BrismanA. (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of green criminology (pp. 150–166). Routledge.
HardinG. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162(3859), 1243–1248.
66.
HigginsP. (2015). Eradicating Ecocide. Exposing the corporate and political practices destroying the planet and proposing the laws to eradicate ecocide (2nd ed.). Shepheard-Walwyn.
67.
HigginsP.ShortD.SouthN. (2013). Protecting the planet: A proposal for a law of ecocide. Crime, Law and Social Change, 59(3), 251–266.
JouffrayJ.-N.BlasiakR.NorströmA.ÖsterblomH.NyströmH. (2020). The blue acceleration: The trajectory of human expansion into the ocean. One Earth, Perspective, 2(1), 43–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2019.12.01.
71.
JunkerK. (Ed.). (2019). Environmental law across cultures: Comparisons for legal practice. Routledge.
72.
KleinN. (2019). On fire: The burning case for a green new deal. Allen Lane.
73.
KolbertE. (2019, May20). Last chances. The New Yorker, 23–24.
74.
LaffoleyD.BaxterJ. M.DayJ. C.WenzelL.BuenoP.ZischkaK. (2019). Marine protected areas. In SheppardC. (Ed.), World seas: An environmental evaluation. Volume III: Ecological issues and environmental impacts (2nd ed., pp. 549–569). Elsevier.
75.
LavaniegosB. E. (2018). Consequences of climate change on the oceans. In Sosa-NunezG. (Ed.), Widening the scope of environmental policies in North America: Toward blue approaches (pp. 95–110). Palgrave Macmillan.
LevinP.PoeM. (Eds.). (2017). Conservation for the Anthropocene ocean: Interdisciplinary science in support of nature and people. Academic Press.
78.
LinoP. G.RosaD.CoelhoR. (2018). Update on the bluefin tuna catches from the tuna trap fishery off southern Portugal (ne Atlantic) between 1998 and 2016, with a preliminary CPUE standardization. Collective Volume of Scientific Papers ICCAT, 74(6), 2719–2733.
79.
LongoS. B.ClarkB. (2012). The commodification of bluefin tuna: The historical transformation of the Mediterranean. Fishery Journal of Agrarian Change, 12(2 and 3), 204–226.
80.
LubchencoJ.GainesS. (2019). A new narrative for the ocean. Science, 364(6444), 911.
81.
LynchM. J.LongM. A.StreteskyP. B.BarrettK. L. (2017). Green criminology: Crime, justice, and the environment. University of California Press.
82.
MaggioT. (2000). Mattanza: Love and death in the sea of sicily. Counterpoint.
83.
MedECC. (2019). Risks associated to climate and environmental changes in the Mediterranean region. A preliminary assessment by the MedECC Network Science-policy interface. https://www.medecc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/MedECC-Booklet_EN_WEB.pdf. Developed by W. Cramer (IMBE, CNRS; MedECC), J. Guiot (CEREGE, CNRS; MedECC) and K. Marini (MedECC), and based on, Cramer, W., Guiot, J., Fader, M., Garrabou, J., Gattuso, J.-P., Iglesias, A., Lange, M. A., Lionello, P., Lla-sat, M. C., Paz, S., Peñuelas, J., Snoussi, M., Toreti, A., Tsimplis, M. N., & Xoplaki, E. (2018). Climate change and interconnected risks to sustainable development in the Mediterranean. Nature Climate Change, 8(11), 972–980. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0299-2
NurseA. (2015). Policing wildlife: Perspectives on the enforcement of wildlife legislation. Palgrave Macmillan.
87.
OrbachM. (2003). Fourth annual Roger Revelle lecture—Beyond the freedom of the seas: Ocean policy for the third millennium. Oceanography, 16(1), 20–29. https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2003.55
PaulsonN. (2018, September12). An emergent “blue criminology”? Review of a new critical criminology book on water. Critical Criminology: An International Journal, 28, 549–551. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-018-9410-2
90.
PaulyD.ZellerD. (2016). Catch reconstructions reveal that global marine fisheries catches are higher than reported and declining. Nature Communications, 7, 10244. https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10244
91.
Penela-ArenazM.BellasJ.VázquezE. (2009). Chapter Five: Effects of the prestige oil spill on the biota of NW Spain: 5 years of learning. Advances in Marine Biology, 56, 365–396.
Rodríguez-RodríguezD. (2019). Marine protected areas: Attempting the sustainability of the seas. In SheppardC. (Ed.), World seas: An environmental evaluation. Volume III: Ecological issues and environmental impacts (2nd ed., pp. 475–489). Elsevier.
96.
RuggieroV. (2013). The crimes of the economy. A criminological analysis of economic thought. Routledge.
97.
RuggieroV.SouthN. (2010). Green criminology and dirty collar crime. Critical Criminology: An International Journal, 18(4), 251–262.
98.
RussG. R.ZellerD. C. (2003). From mare liberum to mare reservarum. Marine Policy, 27(1), 75–78.
99.
SandsP.PeelJ.FabraA.MackenzieR. (2018). Principles of international environmental law. Cambridge University Press.
100.
SchiffmanH. S. (2018). The law of the sea and other instruments of international law as a framework for environmental conservation in North American waters. In Sosa-NunezG. (Ed.), Widening the scope of environmental policies in North America: Toward blue approaches (pp. 57–76). Palgrave Macmillan.
101.
SergiA.SouthN. (2016). “Earth, water, air, and fire”: Environmental crimes, mafia power and political negligence in Calabria. In AntonopolousG. (Ed.), Illegal entrepreneurship, organized crime and social control. Essays in Honor of Professor Dick Hobbs (pp. 85–100). Springer.
102.
SheppardC. (Ed.). (2019). World seas: An environmental evaluation. Volume III: Ecological issues and environmental impacts (2nd ed.). Elsevier.
103.
SmaleD. A.WernbergT.OliverE. C. J.ThomsenM.HarveyB. P.StraubS. C.BurrowsM. T.AlexanderL. V.BenthuysenJ. A.DonatM. G.FengM.HobdayA. J.HolbrookN. J.Perkins-KirkpatrickS. E.ScannellH. A.GuptaA. S.PayneB. L.MooreP. J. (2019, April). Marine heatwaves threaten global biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services. Nature Climate Change, 9(4), 306–312.
104.
Sosa-NunezG. (2018). Introduction: Beyond brown and green policies in North America. In Sosa-NunezG. (Ed.), Widening de scope of environmental policies in North America. Towards blue approaches (pp. 1–12). Palgrave Macmillan.
105.
Soto MelgarM. (2014). Estudio onomasiológico y semasiológico de la terminología almadrabera gaditana. In GrandeC.MartínL.SalicioS. (Coords.), Con una letra joven. Avances en el estudio de la Historiografía e Historia de la Lengua Española (pp. 281–288). Aquilafuente 205–Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.
106.
SouthN. (1998). A greenfieldforcriminology?: A proposalfor a perspective. Theoretical Criminology, 2(2), 211–234.
107.
SouthN. (2014). Green Criminology: Reflections, Connections, Horizons. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 3(2), 5–20.
108.
SouthN. (2016). Free trade agreements, private courts and environmental exploitation: Disconnected policies, denials and moral disengagement. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 5(4), 45–59.
SunZ.BeckmanR. (2018). The development of the Polar Code and challenges to its implementation. In: ZouK. (Ed.), Global commons and the law of the sea. Maritime Cooperation in East Asia (Vol. 5, pp. 303–325). Brill | Nijhoff.
UNEP-WCMC, IUCN. (2020, January). Protected planet: The world database on protected areas (WDPA) [On-line]. UNEP-WCMC. www.protectedplanet.net
113.
UNODC. (2011). Transnational organized crime in the fishing industry. Focus on: Trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants, illicit drugs trafficking. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
114.
UNODC. (2017). Fisheries crime. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
WaltersR. (2014). Organized crime and the environment. In BruinsmaG.WeisburdD. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of criminology and criminal justice. Springer.
119.
WhiteR. (2017). Carbon economics and transnational resistance to ecocide. In HallM.MaherJ.NurseG.PotterG.SouthN.WyattT. (Eds.), Greening criminology in the 21st century (pp. 11–24). Contemporary Debates and Future Directions in the Study of Environmental Harm.
120.
ZalasiewiczJ.WatersC. N.WilliamsM.SummerhayesC. (Eds.). (2019). The Anthropocene as a geological time unit. A guide to the scientific evidence and current debate. University Press.
