An interesting report from Al Jazeera explains how a Greenpeace investigation uncovered illegal fishing activity in the Atlantic Ocean:
It is estimated one in five fish brought to markets is illegally caught, often by a so-called “dark” fishing fleet. This refers to vessels that switch off their satellite tracking to hide their activities in far-flung parts of the world’s oceans. Now a Greenpeace investigation has uncovered the scale of the problem and the need for greater ocean protection. Al Jazeera‘s Nick Clark reports.
Al Jazeera YouTube Channel
The story follows the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise as it follows a vessel which has “gone dark” and turned off its tracking systems.
They then travel to a giant refrigerated ship, and discover the vessel they had been following unloading into it. These large refrigerated ships can stay at sea for long periods, and allows the fishing vessels to stay at sea, without returning to port. Importantly, this avoids catches from being declared, and creates a situation where over-fishing may occur.
The report also showed the Greenpeace ship Esporanza which is operating in the Southern Ocean.
The report speculates that 14 million tonnes of unreported fish catches are traded globally, each year, and that this amounts to $23 billion.
Greenpeace argue that this situation requires a strong global fishing treaty, to ensure that there are no longer unregulated waters allowing this type of “loophole” to be exploited in the future, damaging fish stocks which may never recover.