Enforcement cooperation in combating illegal and unauthorized fishing: an assessment of contemporary practice

The emergence of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the 1970s placed potentially vast areas of the sea under national jurisdiction. Moving from relatively modest territorial seas close to the coast as the only basis of fisheries jurisdiction for States, the international community suddenly embraced a new form of jurisdiction over resources that extended fisheries up to 200 nautical miles from land. This extension brought over one third of the world's oceans, or, more importantly, approximately 90% of the world's wild fish catch, under national jurisdiction.