A report commissioned by ocean conservation nonprofit Oceana and conducted by the EqualSea Lab at the University of Santiago de Compostela has revealed widespread opacity in the ownership of the world’s large-scale fishing fleets.
The report, titled “Who Really Owns the World’s Large-Scale Fishing Fleet?”, finds that almost two-thirds of industrial fishing vessels – responsible for 60 percent of global marine fisheries landings and receiving over 80 percent of fisheries subsidies – lack publicly available ownership information.
Oceana Senior Policy Advisor Ignacio Fresco Vanzini told SeafoodSource the lack of beneficial ownership information undermines the prevention, accountability, and deterrence of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
“If we don’t go after the profits, IUU will continue to happen. Without knowing who ultimately controls a vessel, authorities cannot enforce sanctions effectively, and these individuals can simply reflag vessels, use shell companies, or create new corporate structures to evade consequences,” he said. “If we cannot follow the money or identify the real actors behind IUU, we allow impunity, and the cycle continues.”
Almost every significant IUU case involves opaque ownership, Vanzini said, which makes it extremely difficult to properly combat.
Vanzini offered the example of Spanish operations years ago that targeted a network of vessels involved in illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean, many of which used complex corporate structures to evade detection and accountability...
