Learning the hard way: Australia vs Tarumen

Australia has demonstrated a significant commitment to apprehending foreign nationals and vessels for fisheries offences in the Southern Ocean. However, along with a number of other States, Australia has also expressed the view that the provisions of international law restrains its capacity to sufficiently deter Illegal Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing in the high seas regions of the Southern Ocean. 1 This paper will neither dispute nor discuss the international law regime, instead it will consider the effectiveness of Australian domestic laws which aim to combat IUU fishing in the Australian Fishing Zones (AFZs) of the Southern Ocean.