Abstract

This article shows that in order to combat the phenomenon of Illegal, Undeclared, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and to protect a country’s fishery resources, it is not enough to have laws that punish it and that the institutions responsible for ensuring the proper functioning of the fisheries sector achieve the objectives set in this regard. In fact, the case of Costa Rica shows us how a country can fulfil these aspects and, at the same time, progressively reduce its fish flow. Although there are many reasons for the ineffectiveness of the regulations in force, we will analyze mainly the labor of the Costa Rican Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (INCOPESCA), which in the evaluation of its operations plans, achieves good results every year, which are reflected in a high achievement of its goals. However, there is no scientific evidence that demonstrates that the goals of INCOPESCA are those necessary to reduce IUU fishing and ensure the reproductive sustainability of commercial marine species. For this reason, the hypothesis is that INCOPESCA, like other agencies that at the national and international level are dedicated to the control of illegal activities, generates goals that it knows can be achieved, rather than those that can have a positive and diminishing impact of fishing criminality