Jorge Urbina, Julio2022-08-262022-08-262022Marine Policy 144 (2022) 105214http://hdl.handle.net/10347/29159Over recent years, importance has been attributed to the application of criminal sanctions in the fight against IUU fishing due to the seriousness of the threat it represents for the conservation of marine living resources. This trend towards the criminalisation of certain activities related with IUU fishing has given rise to the appearance of the notion of fisheries crime, which is increasingly employed in certain international forums. However, from a legal point of view, this term does not define a new type of crime applicable to fisheries activity. Rather, it seeks to demonstrate that certain fishing-related offences are criminal in nature. Thus, it is important to define the scope of this notion of fisheries crime in order to determine what criminal offences are included within this category. Depending on its degree of connection with fisheries activity, fisheries crime covers three separate categories of crimes: the crime of illegal fishing, illicit fisheries-related crimes and crimes committed in the context of the fisheries sectoreng© 2022 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Atribución 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Criminal sanctionsFisheries crimeIUU fishingPrinciple of legalitySpanish lawjournal article10.1016/j.marpol.2022.1052140308-597Xopen access