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...
