Fisheries observers as enforcement assets: 21 Years of lessons from the North Pacific

Fisheries sustainability through governance is achieved through enforcement of marine resource laws and regulations, and that enforcement depends upon accurate reporting of potential crimes. These potential crimes are reported by fisheries observers in regions where observers have a dual role as scientist and enforcement asset. Trends in reported violations from a large observer program were examined to increase accountability and transparency, identify how compliance has changed over time, and illustrate the complexities that come with the analysis of these data. Large increases in the rate of potential violations reported by observers were due to the passing of new regulations, a delayed response to a major event, or the efforts of few individual change agents. A much smaller proportion of reported violations have resulted in penalties in recent years when compared to a prior study conducted early in the time series. These differences likely reflect the cumulative effect of gradual increases in regulatory burdens put on observers to report relatively minor offenses for which there are inadequate resources to address.