The study found that the increasing demand for Australian seafood overseas and at home is driving both legal and illegal markets, intensifying the need for sustainable harvesting and management. Although illegal activity in the Australian domestic fishing industry has long been viewed as small-scale and opportunistic, significant numbers of people are regularly violating regulations placed on the industry. Some organized criminal activity is also evident, particularly in high-value, low-volume fish stocks such as abalone and rock lobster. Fisheries management arrangements currently in place may be effective in minimizing the risk of low-level illegal activity; however, there is widespread concern among fisheries officers that the current regulatory environment is not sufficient to deal with and prevent organized criminal activity. The stakeholder consultations indicated concerns in a number of jurisdictions about the current involvement of outlaw motorcycle gangs or Chinese organized crime groups. Nearly two-thirds of fisheries officers responding to a national survey rated legislation, interagency cooperation, and surveillance capacity as very important in countering organized illegal fishing. At the national level, several strategic objectives of the Australian Fisheries National Compliance Strategy 2005-2010 already represent a policy commitment to monitor and respond quickly to opportunistic and organized criminal involvement in fisheries through cooperation between stakeholders and among jurisdictions. It is too soon to determine whether implementation of the policy will occur on a national scale. 1 table, 1 figure, and 13 references