Ships use automatic identification systems (AIS), tracking beacons that enable them to be located on global shipping maps.
Up to 6% of global fishing activity is hidden because commercial vessels disable their tracking systems, a practice that can be used to hide illegal fishing, according to a new study.
The discovered geographical places for ships disabling their trackers, including west Africa, the coast of Argentina and the north-west Pacific – suggesting these are locations where illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is likely to be taking place.
IUU fishing accounts for one-fifth of global fisheries’ catches, causing up to $23.5bn (£20bn) in economic losses annually. It is the third most lucrative natural resources crime after timber and mining. It is also a big driver of marine ecosystem destruction and has been linked to human rights violations.
Transshipment – the unloading of goods from one vessel to another – can be used to launder illegally caught seafood into the supply chain and has been linked to forced labour and human trafficking. Transshipment and illegal fishing have an environmental cost, and damage national revenue and jobs, she added.
In terms of the total number of disabling events, China-flagged ships had the most followed by Taiwan, Spain and the US, Welch said. By fraction of time lost to disabling events, Spain had the highest, followed by the US, Taiwan and China. However, Chinese fleets spend longer at sea than those of other nations.
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