Environmental NGOs ClientEarth and Oceana are suing the nation of Spain for refusing to cooperate in investigations into illegal fishing activities off the coasts of Senegal and Guinea Bissau by Spanish-owned and -flagged fishing vessels.
Nils Courcy, a senior lawyer on ClientEarth’s Marine Ecosystems team, said in a statement the claims against the Spanish-owned vessels are backed by data from maritime intelligence and vessel-tracking platforms and testimonies from local fishing organizations and coastal communities that confirmed the vessels regularly breach E.U. maritime and fishing regulations.
He said Spanish fishing vessels have systematically switched off their automatic identification systems (AIS), which are mandatory tracking devices for all E.U. fishing vessels over 15 meters in length, for both maritime security and fisheries control purposes.
AIS devices automatically and publicly transmit a vessel’s identity, speed, and GPS locations, and switching them off allows vessels to “go dark,” hide their actions, and, therefore, escape public scrutiny, Courcy said.
Courcy specifically cited 11 fishing vessels having committed such infractions – eight of them flagged to Spain and three flagged to Senegal but with Spanish beneficial ownership – off the coast of Senegal and Guinea Bissau between 2020 and 2023.
“The specific issues we are raising in our legal complaint – namely the switching off of AIS and the lack of jurisdiction to investigate Spanish individuals and companies operating in third countries – remain unaddressed,” he said.
The main reason for the lawsuit, Courcy said, is that Spanish authorities have the information needed to adequately punish the vessels, but have refused to investigate further and sanction the operations.
“The Spanish authorities have refused to investigate these cases, and we found out that the activities of many operators may be going unchecked due to legal loopholes,” Courcy said. “Given the growing risk of illegal fishing in West Africa, we are taking legal action to demand more transparency and accountability from Spanish authorities.”
Regarding the legal loopholes, Courcy said Spain is clinging to an E.U. legal gap under which it claims it “lacks jurisdiction to investigate and sanction Spanish-owned vessels engaged in illegal fishing unless they appear officially registered in an international illegal, unreported, and unregulated [IUU] fishing list by regional fisheries management organizations and the E.U. Commission.”
The argument of lack of jurisdiction, Courcy said, means “Spanish companies operating stateless vessels or vessels flagged to African countries – and targeting species not managed by international organizations – remain outside Spanish jurisdiction and cannot be investigated.”
“We believe this is against E.U. law – which explicitly prohibits E.U. citizens and companies from supporting IUU fishing anywhere in the world and requires member states to identify and sanction them if so, regardless of whether a vessel is officially listed as such,” he said.
The two NGOs are optimistic the suit will “challenge the narrow interpretation of the Spanish law when it comes to not allowing Spanish companies to support or engage in IUU fishing and push for broader accountability,” according to Courcy.
On a broader scale, he said the lawsuit should help ensure E.U. member nations “control its [entire] fishing fleet and companies, including vessels owned and flagged in West Africa.”
Courcy said the legal action also aims to increase transparency of vessel ownership to enable equitable access to marine resources by helping coastal communities and local fishers to identify the real owner behind fishing vessels.
