Regulating preparatory acts of illegal fishing through legal means is crucial for enhancing fishery law enforcement, ensuring fair administrative penalties, and advancing law-based governance. This paper examines the concept and necessity of penalizing such acts, analyzing typical cases to identify current regulatory challenges. Key obstacles include vague legal provisions, unclear timeframes for determining preparatory stages, imprecise subjective/objective identification criteria, and inconsistent penalty benchmarks. Proposed solutions involve refining legal provisions, inferring preparatory stages from intent formation, establishing clear identification standards, and optimizing penalties by referencing criminal law precedents on preparatory crimes.