Ocean conservation nonprofit Oceana recently released a study that found the European Union’s long-distance fishing fleet is more than double its stated size when foreign-flagged vessels are included.
The study aimed to emphasize the damage that hidden ownership information does to both investors and the global fight against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, arguing that the current lack of ownership transparency in the fisheries sector may be enabling unidentified people or organizations to profit from unscrupulous fishing activities.
Oceana Senior Policy Advisor Ignacio Fresco Vanzini told SeafoodSource that the report goes deeper than previous hidden ownership analysis by taking a more detailed look at where E.U. companies have registered vessels with higher recorded instances of illegal fishing, in addition to scrutinizing the expansion of E.U. companies in third-party countries.
Researchers particularly dove into Spain’s global fishing footprint, finding that Spanish companies own at least 228 fishing vessels flagged to non-E.U. countries.
When these Spanish-owned vessels are taken into account, the size of Spain’s distant-water fleet increases to 427 vessels, which is more than double its official size of 199 vessels, Vanzini said.
“It significantly expands Spain’s fishing capacity, geographic scope of its operations, and the economic value of its global fishing activities,” Vanzini said. “We were struck by how many of these Spanish-owned vessels (at least 23 percent) are flagged to countries either warned by the E.U. for failing to combat illegal fishing, known flags of convenience, or tax havens. Spanish companies owned at least 40 vessels registered under the flags of countries that have received a ‘yellow card’ warning from the E.U., such as Ecuador, Panama, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. In addition, they owned at least 12 vessels operating under flags of convenience, including those of Belize, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, and Vanuatu.”
It’s not just within the E.U. that Spain stands out as an offender of this practice either, Vanzini said, explaining that Spanish companies stand out globally as owning the highest number of vessels operating in third-party countries, followed by South Korea.
“This pattern reflects a deliberate strategy by Spanish companies to consolidate and expand their operations across jurisdictions. But, the study underrepresents Chinese ownership in third-party countries. We know [for example] that China owns the largest fishing companies, so it is probable that these have interests in third-party countries as well,” he said. “In terms of impact, the environmental and social consequences of these hidden fleets vary widely. In some countries, joint ventures can be genuine and even beneficial, such as certain Spanish investments in Argentina or Seychelles. But in others, these arrangements are primarily used to evade accountability – a pattern we see in both Chinese and Spanish operations in West Africa.”
To identify the E.U. ownership of non-E.U. vessels for its report, Oceana used the same global dataset developed by the EqualSea Lab at the University of Santiago de Compostela for its analysis of the world’s large-scale fishing fleet.
Of the nearly 19,000 vessels with IMO identification numbers, ownership data was available for just under 7,000, meaning the results likely reflect just the visible portion of a much larger hidden fleet, Vanzini said.
“The 7,000 analyzed vessels are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
The study focused on this smaller but verifiable dataset, tracing beneficial owners to E.U. entities where possible, despite the “patchy transparency” in many registries.
“This is indeed a big gap,” Vanzini said, explaining that the research was based solely on the information that could be found.
Oceana’s report and findings were unveiled at the recently held United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, with the organization highlighting that there’s currently no obligation for E.U. citizens or companies to register their ownership of foreign-flagged vessels with European authorities.
Among other things, Oceana warns that not controlling these activities undermines international law and the bloc’s zero-tolerance policy against IUU fishing, as well as hindering efforts to sustainably manage marine resources. To address the situation, it wants member nations to require their companies to register the ownership of vessels flagged to non-E.U. nations.
Specifically, its key recommendations include:
- National administrations adopting mandatory laws (e.g., fleet register legislation or investment legislation) requiring their citizens to report any interest – legal or beneficial – in foreign-flagged fishing vessels;
- The European Commission amending the E.U. Fleet Register Implementing Regulation to include beneficial ownership information in the E.U. fishing fleet register;
- The European Commission creating a public register with E.U. beneficial owners of fishing vessels flagged to non-E.U. countries;
- The E.U. becoming a leader within regional fishery management organizations and pushing for beneficial information to be included in all fishing vessel lists, including authorized vessel lists and IUU fishing vessel lists; and
- E.U. member states regularly providing beneficial ownership information to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Global Record of Fishing Vessels.
