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July 28, 2025

Who profits from fishing operations in Europe?  

 

What is beneficial ownership? 

Beneficial ownership refers to the people or businesses that ultimately own, control and financially profit from fishing vessels’ operations, even if their names do not appear on official ownership documents. To avoid scrutiny, many fishing companies operate under the so-called flags of convenience, countries with limited control over their fleets, weak enforcement capacity, and lax regulations that allow operators to easily circumvent the rules while continuing to benefit from fishing operations abroad.  

What is the problem? 

EU law prohibits its nationals from supporting or engaging in illegal fishing in any form, including as beneficial owners. However, there is no obligation for EU citizens and companies to declare if they own or profit from vessels flagged to non-EU countries, which means that these ownership links remain largely under the radar and with little scrutiny. In fact, recent Oceana research shows that the size of the EU’s long distance fishing fleet could be more than double as officially known, when foreign-flagged vessels with EU ties are included.  This lack of control allows profits from foreign fishing activities to flow back to Europe, whether or not those activities are legal, sustainable, or ethical. 

Why does beneficial ownership transparency matter? 

Having publicly available and accurate information on beneficial ownership is essential to understanding who is ultimately accountable for fishing activities as well as to prevent illegal fishing.  

Beneficial owners often reside ashore and operate at a distance, making prosecution and sanctioning difficult. Often, legal ownership, such as the entity holding the vessel registration or the fishing licence, can differ significantly from the beneficial owner, especially when illegal fishing is involved. In these cases, beneficial owners often have a strong incentive to remain hidden. 

For example, a fishing vessel operating in the Indian Ocean is caught fishing illegally. On paper, the vessel is owned by a shell company registered in a small island nation. The listed owner is a local agent with no real power to the operation. But in reality, the profits flow back to a European investor who remains invisible to enforcement authorities. Because their name does not appear in any public record, it is impossible for authorities to link them to the illegal activity and therefore apply sanctions – and the cycle continues. 

What should be done? 

To address this, Oceana calls on: 

  • EU Member States to require their citizens and companies to declare any legal, beneficial or financial interests in fishing vessels flagged to non-EU countries.  
  • the European Commission to create a centralised database with complete beneficial ownership information in the fishing sector.  

These reforms are essential to close loopholes, improve accountability, and make sure those benefiting from fishing, legal or illegal, can no longer hide in the shadows. 

Without transparency, efforts to tackle illegal fishing are undermined. 

Let’s make the real owners visible and responsible.