Flags for Sale an Empirical Assessment of Flag of Convenience Desirability to Foreign Vessels

The registration of vessels under foreign flags is widely spread and much literature has proposed a number of factors explaining why certain flags are more desirable than others. The authors analyse 38 of of those factors to show that the desirable flags are flags of countries that are largely non-cooperative with international efforts to sustainably manage shared fish stocks and prevent IUU fishing. The same flags are easy to acquire and allow fishing vessels access to a large number of countries’ exclusive economic zones.