Illegal wildlife trading is a global issue that endangers ecosystems, the economy, and human health. Capturing, selling, using, or possessing marine creatures illegally violates local and international law significantly. Such measures negatively influence marine ecosystem health, global food security, and sustainable development programs. This article examines maritime wildlife crime from various perspectives, including its causes, consequences, and possible remedies. It offers marketing strategies to reduce marine wildlife crime based on a typology built via expert interviews and literature review.
For this article, three marine specialists were interviewed in detail to give insight into the issue of marine wildlife crime. Four significant difficulties are identified: poor fishing practices, recreational fishing, illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing, pollution, and river management (Keel & Wolf, 2020). Aquaculture, international agreements, consumer engagement in the supply chain, education, and celebrity endorsements are just a few solutions proposed to reduce illicit marine species trading. The marine fauna is critical to food production because it accounts for 57% of all fish eaten worldwide (Keel & Wolf, 2020). Numerous marine species live in the world’s seas, and even little changes in water quality in these locations may have far-reaching implications.
Marine creatures make pets, pharmaceuticals, art, décor, cosmetics, apparel, and furniture. To combat marine animal crime, international trade treaties, national, state, and municipal regulations, and incentives for locals to desist from illegal operations have all been devised (Keel & Wolf, 2020). Nevertheless, it is not easy to enforce due to variations in the legislation. This research attempts to overcome this knowledge gap by conducting expert interviews and a literature review to establish a tentative taxonomy of marine life threats.
To get answers, seekers might utilize law enforcement, demand reduction initiatives, alternate sources of money, and market- and incentive-based approaches. The information will serve as the basis for researchers to create a taxonomy of maritime wildlife crime, which will help further study this issue. This examination used three in-depth, open-ended interviews with marine experts from research, teaching, and law to explore marine wildlife crime. As a result of these discussions, four fundamental problems with maritime wildlife crime got identified. The first concern to marine life in the United States is fishing or illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. (Keel & Wolf, 2020). Illegal, unreported, and uncontrolled fishing occurs when size, quantity, area, and species regulations are disregarded. Aquaculture might be the answer that conservationists have been striving for in order to create a better balance between economic activity and ecology. Moreover, the IUU Fishing Index provides a baseline for assessing 152 countries’ susceptibility to and progress in eliminating IUU fishing.
A second source of worry is the capture, injury, and slaughter of uneconomically viable animals. This may have disastrous environmental consequences when done on a large, industrial scale. The third issue is hobby fishing, which some participants saw as suitable while others saw as trophy hunting and hence should be prohibited. Agricultural and industrial run-offs are the primary causes of river pollution, which may lead to significant difficulties later on (Keel & Wolf, 2020). Experts recommend prioritizing education, youth education, activism, and aquarium financing to foster better human-marine animal connections. More individuals need to be engaged in the supply chain in order to raise awareness and end the illicit trafficking in marine creatures. To determine how well these strategies work, further research is needed.
Reference
Keel, A. L., & Wolf, M. (2020). Towards a classification of marine wildlife crime: Marketing strategies to curtail illegal fishing, malicious acts, and waterway pollution. Psychology & Marketing, 37(12), 1743–1754. Web.