UNDERWATER NOISE POLLUTION: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE NEXUS BETWEEN UNDERWATER ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES AND MONEY LAUNDERING

Abstract The administration of fisheries is at a critical stage, facing not only the challenges of overfishing but also the sinister rise in unregulated practices. This paper highlights the complicated, hidden realities of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, claiming that an effective management strategy must look beyond catch quotas to address the broader criminal ecosystem that enables it. IUU fishing is closely tied to a web of environmental crimes, particularly underwater noise pollution, a subject that remains underexplored in both legal and ecological discourse. Through a doctrinal analysis, this research aims to find the contradictions of the existing legislative frameworks. In contrast, international agreements and domestic regulations, from the London Convention to national (Coastal Regulatory Zones) CRZ rules, other acts and conventions that aim to manage marine environments, have consistently failed to account for the cumulative and destructive impact of noise emissions. These results of human activities, from merchant shipping to resource extraction, often operate with impunity. These issues degrade marine ecosystems, which are the habitats of the aquatic fauna that global fisheries depend on. Furthermore, financial exploitation in the form of Money Laundering increases profits from IUU fishing, which is laundered globally, creating a cascading effect on conservation efforts. This paper, therefore, calls for a paradigm shift, one that recognises IUU fishing as a nexus of environmental and financial crime. Keywords- Environmental Crimes, Money Laundering, CRZ Rules, Underwater Noise Pollution, Conservation.