Over the past several decades, the fishing sector has experienced dramatic changes. Production and trade have increased considerably. The relative importance of developing countries has grown as they expanded their fishing efforts and as a result of over-fishing in OECD countries

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a worldwide problem which is increasing in scale. But the international community lacks hard evidence because IUU fishing activities are camouflaged and information and data are therefore often anecdotal