The International Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance (IMCS) Network was established to provide a mechanism for fisheries law enforcement professionals to share information and experiences as they monitor the increasingly complex harvesting and marketing of fish around the world. The rise in illegal activities that has accompanied globalization underscores the need for cooperative law enforcement across national borders. Realizing this need, a commitment to form what would become the IMCS Network was made at an international enforcement conference sponsored by Chile in 2000 and reinforced at the inaugural IMCS Network meeting in Florida in 2001.
Today the IMCS Network’s mission remains the same: to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of fisheries-related MCS activities through enhanced cooperation, coordination, information collection and exchange among national organizations and institutions responsible for fisheries related monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS). The IMCS Network remains a voluntary organization, which operates informally and encourages participation from fisheries managers, investigators, attorneys, foreign service officers, and forensics specialists. The IMCS Network continues to fulfill its mission by hosting a wide array of fisheries law enforcement information through it website, organizing meetings, implementing trainings, and serving as a liaison among MCS professionals.