Enforcement

The Vessel Monitoring System allows us to use 21st century technologies to monitor compliance, track violators, and provide substantial evidence for prosecution.

How We Use It

VMS is used to support law enforcement initiatives and to prevent violations of laws and regulations. VMS also helps enforcement personnel focus their patrol time on areas with the highest potential for significant violations.

The VMS program currently monitors more than 4,000 vessels. It is the largest national VMS fleet in the world. The system operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with near-perfect accuracy, which is why the program is of interest to other users, including the U.S. Coast Guard, academia, and the coastal states. VMS data is, by law, subject to strict confidentiality requirements.

How It Works

VMS is a satellite surveillance system primarily used to monitor the location and movement of commercial fishing vessels in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone and treaty areas. The system uses satellite-based communications from on-board transceiver units, which certain vessels are required to carry. The transceiver units send position reports that include vessel identification, time, date, and location, and are mapped and displayed on the end user’s computer screen.

Each vessel typically sends position reports once an hour, but increases intervals when the vessel is approaching an environmentally sensitive area. Alerts can be sent to the VMS technicians and other personnel when a particular vessel location might require additional inquiry or contact with the vessel operator.

Other Uses for the Vessel Monitoring System

• Managing sensitive and protected areas, like marine sanctuaries.
• Monitoring activity and arrivals in port to plan for sampling.
• Supporting catch share programs.
• Tracking, monitoring, and predicting fishing effort, activity, and location.
• Managing observer programs.
• Verifying/validating data from other sources.
• Identifying fishing vessels.

Learn more about the types of approved VMS units

Regional Vessel Monitoring System Information

• Alaska 
• Northeast  
• Pacific Islands  
• Southeast  
• West Coast 
• Atlantic Highly Migratory Species

Assistance

For program management inquiries, contact Kelly Spalding at kelly.spalding@noaa.gov.

For VMS compliance and technical assistance, contact VMS Support at ole.helpdesk@noaa.gov or (888) 219-9228.

The Cooperative Enforcement Program aims to increase living marine resource conservation, endangered species protection, and critical habitat enforcement while strengthening state and territorial enforcement resources.

The program uses two main tools to accomplish its goals:

• Cooperative Enforcement Agreements, which authorize state and U.S. territorial marine conservation law enforcement officers to enforce federal laws and regulations.
• Joint Enforcement Agreements, which include a formal operations plan that transfers funds to state and U.S. territorial law enforcement agencies to perform law enforcement services in support of federal regulations.

We partner with state and territorial marine and natural resource enforcement agencies to enhance our active presence, visibility, and interactions with the regulated industry. Partnerships with these enforcement agencies help promote compliance with federal laws and regulations under our purview, and our law enforcement agents and officers leverage Joint Enforcement Agreement partnerships to conduct joint operations.

The United States is one of the world’s leading destinations for globally harvested seafood. Estimates indicate that more than 80 percent of the seafood consumed annually in the United States is imported.

We work with various international organizations to protect and conserve global marine resources. This means that in addition to national laws, we enforce international laws, treaties, and agreements that the United States signs as they relate to areas under our jurisdiction.

NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement prioritizes efforts with foreign countries, federal partners, and non-governmental organizations to detect and prevent IUU fish and fish products from entering U.S. markets. We bring to justice those who seek to profit from this activity. In support of this priority, our International Operations Division leads a multi-faceted approach that includes:

• Monitoring imports into the United States, as well as seafood products in global trade
• Partnering with other federal and state law enforcement agencies to combat IUU fishing and seafood fraud throughout the United States
• Engaging in multilateral and bilateral discussions with international partners to create enforceable provisions to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and develop cooperation and collaboration in detecting, deterring, and interdicting IUU fishing activity and trade
• Supporting broad and effective global implementation of the Port State Measures Agreement
• Providing technical assistance to global partners, with emphasis on major exporters of seafood to the United States, to assist in developing the fisheries enforcement capacity to detect and interdict IUU fish and fish products before they enter the global market
• Educating the public, consumers, and international audiences about the impacts of IUU fishing and fishing-related activities

Learn more about Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing

Working Internationally with Law Enforcement Partners

NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement relies on cooperation and partnerships at home and abroad in the protection and conservation of global marine resources. At home, OLE has forged critical partnerships to coordinate counter-IUU fishing assistance in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Along with other NOAA offices, we partner with:

• State and territorial law enforcement partners
• U.S. Coast Guard
• Department of State and its International Narcotics and Law Enforcement division
• U.S. Agency for International Development
• Department of Defense

Beyond our borders, international partnerships—both formal and informal—play a critical role in our efforts to combat IUU fishing.

Information Sharing and Cooperation

NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement continually works to increase our collaboration with international partners. These activities include information sharing, joint law enforcement operations, technical assistance to increase fisheries enforcement capacity, and participation in meetings between two or more countries.

Examples of international cooperation and information sharing:

• Member of international organizations specifically designed to combat IUU fishing such as INTERPOL’s Fisheries Crime Working Group
• Participant in, and advocate of, the International Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance Network, a voluntary global organization specifically focused on fisheries monitoring, control, and surveillance practitioners—inspectors, investigators, and prosecutors
• Supporter of the Regional Plan of Action to Promote Responsible Fishing Practices Including Combating Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing in the Southeast Asia Region
• Observer to the “Network of Exchange of information and experiences among Latin American and Caribbean countries to Prevent, Discourage and Eliminate IUU Fishing,” which enhances information sharing and collaboration with all of the fisheries law enforcement entities engaged in this network
• In addition, we have formal agreements with the European Union and Russia to share information and cooperate to combat IUU fishing and trafficking in IUU fish products

Participating in International Regional Fisheries Management Organizations

NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement represents the United States on numerous regional fisheries management organizations. We serve on U.S. delegations to annual and intersessional meetings to provide enforcement expertise on compliance issues and the development of new conservation and management measures. Some larger commissions we participate in include:

• Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources
• International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
• Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission
• North Pacific Fisheries Commission
• Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization
• South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization
• Western and Central Pacific Fishery Commission

Implementing the Port State Measures Agreement

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter, and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing seeks to prevent IUU fishing through the adoption and implementation of effective port state measures. These measures are a means of ensuring the long-term conservation and sustainable use of marine life. NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement is the primary agency responsible for implementing the Agreement, in coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard.

Learn more about the PSMA and OLE’s work to implement it

Capacity Building and Technical Assistance

The international community consistently seeks NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement’s expertise in environmental crime, criminal investigations, the fishing industry, vessel monitoring systems, and case management. Much of our international work focuses on combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing through capacity building and technical assistance to international partners and agencies through government to government interactions.

Learn more about our efforts to combat IUU fishing

On a weekly basis, we'll post highlights of our enforcement actions below and examples of high-interest violation notices. This does not include all weekly actions taken by our officers or special agents.