Recent Important Case Law Dealing With International Fisheries Crime

Professor Jan Glazewski has recently completed an article titled “Restitution to South Africa for Illegal Fishing in South African Waters; United States v Bengis (2013): A Victory for Wildlife Law and Lessons for International Fisheries Crime”. It will shortly be published in the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law. In this case, three South African defendants were initially criminally prosecuted under the South African Marine Living Resources Act and the United States’ Lacey Act. The defendants had illegally harvested rock lobster in South African waters and exported them to the USA over a period of 14 years. In so doing they had also violated immigration, customs and revenue laws. The defendants were subsequently subjected to a civil restitution claim under the US Mandatory Victims Restitution Act which provides for restitution certain property related crimes. This culminated in a restitution order by the New York District court in an amount of over $29 million in June 2013. The issues raised include the nature of South Africa’s property interest, as opposed to a regulatory interest, in living marine resources located in its waters; the quantification of damage caused by loss of natural resources, in this case by theft, over a period of time; and the difficulties raised in policing transnational fisheries crime. The article will be posted on the IMEL website when formally published. You can obtain a copy of the judgment here.

The quantification of damage suffered as a result of illegal catches of rock lobster was partly informed by two reports prepared by Ocean and Land Resource Consultants (OLRAC). You can download a copy of the OLRAC Reports here.