A new report on global industrial fishing has uncovered a complex and hidden plot involving ghost companies, questionable permits, and fishing fleets operating in the shadows.
The study reveals that a significant part of the global fishing industry operates with alarming lack of transparency, making it difficult to know who the real culprits of the plunder of marine resources are.
This network, which sometimes seems taken out of a spy story, includes ships changing names, companies dissolving and reappearing under a different identity, nearly impossible to trace records, and interconnected anonymous societies.
This is the functioning of a large part of the worldwide fishing industry, a reality that has been exposed in the report “Beyond the Flag”, prepared by the laboratory EqualSea, commissioned by Oceana, one of the most recognized international organizations in marine conservation.
The study analyzed a vast set of 33,000 industrial fishing vessels between 2017 and 2021. The result is staggering: 60% of these vessels do not have an identifiable ultimate beneficiary.
This means that more than half of the fleet extracting tons of ocean resources each day operates without a visible owner.
Shells, pyramids, and shadows
Milko Schvartzman, a specialist in marine conservation and one of the main regional references in illegal fishing, explains this situation without euphemisms: “What many shipowners do is create companies that function as shells to avoid being identified as the true owners of the vessels“.
According to Schvartzman, this corporate architecture is deliberately designed to be confusing and may include connected societies pyramids, registrations in countries where revealing the identity of shareholders is not required, and a constant change of name or flag.
“The same person can be at the top of a structure with several companies below, in different countries, all operating as if they were separate entities. Sometimes, even governments are behind these networks, as is the case with many Chinese vessels,” he adds.
The consequences of “ghost ships”
The lack of transparency has direct and serious consequences. If the true owner of a ship cannot be identified, they cannot be held accountable when breaking the law, fishing illegally, or destroying marine ecosystems.
“The one responsible for the depredation is not the sailor. It’s the ultimate owner. But if they are not identified, they are never penalized,” explains Milko. “And that perpetuates the crime.”
The report also reveals that a significant portion of these vessels operate in regions far from the country where they are registered. In the case of West Africa and the Pacific, one in three industrial vessels is controlled by foreign interests.
How is this possible? Through opaque contracts, legal intermediaries, and records designed more to hide information than to provide it.
The particular case of Argentina
Argentina is not exempt from this concerning scenario. In fact, according to Schvartzman, the country is far behind others in the region regarding fishing transparency.
“We don’t have a public registry of vessels. We don’t clearly know who the ultimate owners of the ships fishing our resources are. It’s as if a part of the sea is secretly privatized,” states the specialist.
Schvartzman adds an even more alarming fact: “There are ships permitted to fish in Argentina whose shipowner is linked to vessels that engaged in illegal fishing.
This violates the Federal Fishing Law, but it continues because there is no in-depth investigation into who is behind each permit”.
What can we do?
In the face of this problem, the report proposes a series of concrete actions to improve traceability and combat impunity in the industry:
- Publish the names of the ultimate beneficiaries of each vessel.
- Transparent the processes of licenses and permits.
- Coordinate global policies to prevent companies from hiding behind multiple flags.
“Today the sea is being plundered by faceless fleets. And countries —including ours— are opening the door for them,” warns Schvartzman. Meanwhile, the environmental, economic, and social consequences continue to accumulate: destroyed ecosystems, depleted resources, workers in precarious conditions, and a citizenry that, in many cases, doesn’t even know who is taking away their marine resources.
