Blue crime: Conceptualising transnational organised crime at sea

Bueger, Christian; Edmunds, Timothy

doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2020.104067

Cited by 57 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Further, our study positions the issue of violence against fishers as a key constituent of SSF conflicts. Blue crimes, crimes at sea, or fishery crimes are becoming a visible issue in SSF (Bueger andEdmunds 2020, Witbooi et al 2020). In these new studies, violence in the fisheries sector results from interactions with other activities in the same fishing territory, such as drug trafficking, illegal crops, infrastructure, and extractive industries.…”

Section: Expanded Knowledge About Types Of Small-scale Fisheries Conflicts and Their Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Filmmaking as a source of enhanced knowledge and transformation in conflicts over small-scale fisheries: the case of Colombia

Rodríguez‐Labajos¹,

Saavedra-Díaz²,

Botto-Barrios³

2021

E&S

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Small-scale fisheries (SSF) harvesting on coastal and inland aquatic ecosystems sustain the livelihood of hundreds of millions around the world. In Colombia, as in many other developing countries, SSF suffer from multiple pressures and conflicts. Yet the research on SSF conflicts is scarce and the typology of these conflicts is poorly systematized and understood. Existing studies lack the necessary interdisciplinary integration to address social-ecological processes involved in SSF. Moreover, scientific research requires building trust with fishers in order to gain an accurate picture of relevant intra-community processes and values.In face of this situation, we compiled information from nonfiction films about fishing conflicts, with the double aim of underpinning scientific knowledge on conflicts over SSF and analyzing the use of the films to promote transformations in these conflicts. Our empirical evidence relies on the organization of an ad hoc docu-conference where filmmakers, fishers, and the general public engaged in a meaningful discussion on the issues affecting SSF communities in Colombia.Films represent the range of conflicts over SSF in 31 locations of 16 Colombian departments and provide data about types of actors involved in the conflicts, types of conflicts and their causes, and possible courses of action. We gained insights into fishing conflicts as processes of change that involve drivers and impacts with common patterns in both inland waters, and marine and coastal environments but evolve in diverging responses or calls for action. Beyond the variables emerging in the films, audiovisual content supports stakeholders in their pursuit of knowledge sharing, political mobilization, and social functioning. Films about SSF conflicts expand knowledge and relatedness that propel intellectual processes tending to exacerbate the conflict and/ or stimulate sense of place, enhance governance, and give a boost to alternatives. Research participants (filmmakers, fishers, and the public) discussed advantages and limitations of using films to tackle the SSF crisis in Colombia. We demonstrate the value of films in social-ecological research and provide evidence of how they can support and bring about transformative change.

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Section: Expanded Knowledge About Types Of Small-scale Fisheries Conflicts and Their Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Filmmaking as a source of enhanced knowledge and transformation in conflicts over small-scale fisheries: the case of Colombia

Rodríguez‐Labajos¹,

Saavedra-Díaz²,

Botto-Barrios³

2021

E&S

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“…kidnap and ransom, theft, stowaways, crime against maritime trade), crime across the sea (e.g. various types of smuggling/trafficking), and crimes in the sea (especially Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported [IUU] fishing) (Bueger & Edmunds, 2020). In the light of the term's broadness, it should be noted that the Yaoundé Architecture has been criticised for being too focussed on piracy vis-à-vis other forms of blue crime (Ukeje & Ela, 2013).…”

Section: The Yaoundé Code Of Conduct and Its Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

Sovereignty and Transnational Cooperation in the Gulf of Guinea: How a Network Approach can Strengthen the Yaoundé Architecture

Yücel

2021

Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies

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Based on the worrying development of blue crime in the Gulf of Guinea, this paper examines transnational cooperation in the Yaoundé Architecture and ways to strengthen it. It argues that the Architecture consists of independent states that are hesitant to delegate sovereignty but forced to cooperate because blue crime is inherently transnational and therefore requires transnational responses. For these reasons, the Architecture resembles a network with independent participants, who must cooperate to achieve a common goal, and structural and social control elements meant to overcome coordination problems. Nevertheless, these elements need improving to strengthen cooperation in the Architecture, and by extension, efforts in fighting blue crime. The paper suggests ways in which the Architecture can be strengthened by including commercial actors and international partners in the network, streamlining the roles of structural elements, ensuring a better exchange of information, and implementing agreed measures. This paper is relevant to scholars and practitioners interested in the Yaoundé Architecture and maritime security responses in the Gulf of Guinea.

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“…Crimes and harms affecting the marine environment might, we suggest, be considered as part of a new "blue criminology" which embraces, for example, the concept of transnational organized crime at sea which can be found in operation in differing ways across the world's maritime regions (see generally Paulson, 2018). Bueger and Edmunds (2020) identify three focal categories of relevance here: crimes against mobility (modern piracy, cybercrime), criminal flows or transit crime (smuggling, human trafficking), and environmental crimes (e.g., fishing, waste dumping at sea, unregulated activities). To consider all these together suggests the need for international criminal law that is holistic and that can provide the basis for a comprehensive response.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Today, the social and natural sciences need to be more sophisticated, without being more compartmentalized: in other words, they need to be intellectually receptive and sympathetic to each other in order to synthesize useful knowledge regarding environmental threats (see Bearzi, 2020). Adopting an interdisciplinary approach to findings from marine science opens a window of opportunity for the study of criminal law, and for a criminology concerned with environmental harms to consider the meaning of "blue crime" and possible interventions (Bueger & Edmunds, 2020). Both the criminology of the environment-referred to as "green criminology" (Brisman & South, 2019b-and environmental criminal law (Boyle, 2012;García Ruiz, 2017;Junker, 2019;Sands et al, 2018)-have played increasingly important and thoughtprovoking roles in their disciplines.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such, green criminologists have a spectrum of activities and consequences to explore (for an overview of causes, responses, prevention and meaning of eco-crime or environmental crime and harm and their eco-philosophical alignments, see Brisman & South, 2019b. The range of manifestations of eco-crimes/harms at sea could embrace, among other examples: illegal shipping and marine piracy, both of which involve blatant disregard for national, regional, and international environmental law (e.g., Bueger & Edmunds, 2020;Collins, 2015); illegal fishing, which competes with traditional fisheries, destroys sea-bottom ecosystems, and aggravates tensions over vessel licensing (Belhabib & Le Billon, 2020, p. 1); massive extraction of mineral and metal resources from seawater, involving companies engaging in fracking offshore and dumping toxic chemicals into the ocean (Jouffray et al, 2020); depletion of mangrove ecosystems and salt marshes, which are increasingly threatened by direct and indirect human activities, or by the effects of climate change (WWF, 2020; see also Cohen, 2018;Lavaniegos, 2018;Pierre-Louis & Popovich, 2019;Smale et al, 2019); discharges of waste in ocean waters (Greife & Stretesky, 2013; see also Taylor, 2019); the impact of light pollution (artificial light) on marine fish and zooplankton in an increasingly warmer Arctic (Berg et al, 2020;Gibbens, 2020); and "ghost fishing" caused by abandonment or dumping of fishing gear in the oceans (Brown & Macfayden, 2007;Leschin-Hoar, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Eco-Crimes and Ecocide at Sea: Toward a New Blue Criminology

Ruiz

South

Brisman

2020

Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol

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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.

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Blue crime: Conceptualising transnational organised crime at sea

Cited by 57 publications

References 44 publications

Filmmaking as a source of enhanced knowledge and transformation in conflicts over small-scale fisheries: the case of Colombia

Filmmaking as a source of enhanced knowledge and transformation in conflicts over small-scale fisheries: the case of Colombia

Sovereignty and Transnational Cooperation in the Gulf of Guinea: How a Network Approach can Strengthen the Yaoundé Architecture

Eco-Crimes and Ecocide at Sea: Toward a New Blue Criminology

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