A group of 130 carrier vessels, overwhelmingly flagged to a small list of countries, are responsible for over 70 percent of transshipments around the world, according to recent Pew Charitable Trusts-funded research.
The report, published 19 April by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, studied 12,322 regional fisheries management organization (RFMO)-recorded transshipments, finding that 130 out of around 600 carrier vessels were responsible for the vast majority of them.
Out of the vessels in question, most were flying the flags of either Taiwan, Liberia, Panama, or China, with 24 percent of transshipments linked to interactions between the latter two countries. Panama-flagged fishing vessels were also responsible for the first-, third-, and fourth- ranked number of transshipment pairings with China-, Taiwan- and South Korea-flagged carrier vessels, respectively.
Taiwan-flagged carriers linking up with Taiwan-flagged fishing vessels accounted for 13 percent of all transshipments, the second-largest rate of incident after the China-Panama connection.
“Countries are always responsible for the vessels that carry their flags,” The Pew Charitable Trusts International Fisheries Manager Jamie Gibbon said. “If we’re seeing an increasing trend of carrier vessels that are flying one flag or an increasing trend of fishing vessels with one flag transshipping with another country’s vessels, that’s where we know there needs to be a focus on monitoring and regulation.”
Transshipment occurs when carriers meet fishing vessels at sea to transfer the catch the latter vessels have hauled in, which allows fishing vessels to stay at sea longer and reduce operating costs related to return trips to port.
The risk of illicit activity – such as misreporting or nonreporting of catch; workers’ rights abuses; and instances of trafficking people, weapons, and drugs – increases with transshipments, especially in regions that have inadequate monitoring and regulatory control measures. This is because these interactions often take place in international waters, often clustering just outside of countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs) to avoid detection.
The study, using automatic identification systems (AIS) data from 2015 to 2020, focused on transshipment events occurring in seven RFMO-managed regions: the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), the North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC), the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (SPRFMO), the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC).
“One of the regions that is still behind is the WCPFC … the region that has the most tuna transshipped in the world and makes up a huge majority of the fish that goes into global markets,” Gibbon said. “They are still [operating with] outdated transshipment measures, and they haven’t made a lot of progress. That’s really where we’d like to see efforts focused … is getting the WCPFC to update their measures to incorporate best practices.”
Notable hot spots of transshipment were the Eastern Central Pacific, the northern region of the Southeast Pacific, and areas just outside of EEZs, particularly in the Western Pacific, South American, and West African coasts.
“We want the industry to be aware that this is an issue, that [it] is a potential risk to them, and [that] they should take a close look at their supply chains,” Gibbon said. “If they are heavily involved in transshipment or if they are buying a lot of transshipped fish, they need to invest resources to investigate and make sure the fish caught is caught legally.”
According to Gibbon, the study can inform authorities where best to allocate monitoring resources and allow fishery managers to enhance efforts on species of interest that have high transshipment rates, such as squid. Pew additionally recommended RFMOs begin to routinely audit vessels’ reported information and inspect fishing vessels transshipping with carriers operating in their specific convention area.
“I think it certainly shines a spotlight on those key carriers, the ones that are involved with the majority of transshipment, and I think it should point to where … [there should be a] focus on better monitoring,” Gibbon said. “That’s what we’re looking to do is provide that information … so those who are responsible are aware of what their vessels are doing.”
Through highlighting the need for better coordination between RFMOs, Pew said the study can assist in managing increasing rates of transshipment and implementing stronger regulatory frameworks in RFMOs to ensure these activities are legal. Gibbon said a blanket ban is not realistic but more extensive monitoring can be a powerful deterrent to bad behavior.
“I think transshipment has gotten to the point where it’s a key part of the fishery industry, and that’s why it would be, realistically, very hard to ban [outright]. It would probably increase the cost of fishing and, therefore, seafood, and it may increase the amount of fuel that vessels have to burn which would have climate impacts,” Gibbon said.
In 2022, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization adopted a globally recognized set of transshipment guidelines. Pew recommended that RFMOs and governmental bodies implement this framework, along with RFMO data-sharing agreements and increased oversight of key carrier vessels.
Gibbon noted ICCAT, IOTC, IATTC, and NPFC have updated their transshipment measures and implemented best practices within the last 18 months, and said that shows progress on the issue.
“I do believe that if you have well-monitored transshipment activity, it can be sustainable,” Gibbon said. “That’s why we’re pushing our best practices, that’s why we’ve supported the process to get those international guidelines, and that’s why we’ll keep working with RFMOs to try to have them strengthen their measures.”
Photo courtesy of knyazev Vasily/Shutterstock
