Hidden owners behind fishing fleets

According to the report from EqualSea Lab at the University of Santiago de Compostela and commissioned by Oceana, nearly two-thirds of industrial fishing vessels – responsible for 60% of global marine fisheries landings and recipients of over 80% of fisheries subsidies – lack publicly available ownership information.

“Knowing who can fish what, where and when and who profits from it enables accountability and supports sustainable and legal fishing,” said Vanya Vulperhorst, Oceana’s Illegal Fishing and Transparency campaign director in Europe.

“By enhancing transparency, authorities would have crucial information to find and sanction the real owners of fishing vessels.”

The report also highlights the European Union’s understated footprint in distant-water fishing. While the EU officially counts 244 long-distance vessels, the report identifies 344 additional EU-owned vessels over 24 metres in length operating under foreign flags in 43 non-EU countries, boosting the true EU fleet size to 588 vessels.

Spain, the Netherlands and Italy are the top owners of these foreign-flagged vessels, primarily registered in African and South American nations.

More than one in six vessels are legally owned in a country different from their flag state, a tactic used to exploit weak regulatory environments. “Bad actors can hide behind shell companies and lenient registries like those of Panama, Belize and Honduras,” said Vulperhorst.

Oceana urges flag states to mandate and publicly share beneficial ownership information to strengthen oversight and accountability.