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 … Read more
The European Union (EU) has long been a leader in efforts to combat illegal fishing. As the world’s largest market for seafood and home to one of the largest fishing fleets globally, the EU plays a pivotal role in shaping how fisheries are managed and monitored worldwide. To date, the EU has developed one of … Read more
At the UN Ocean Conference, the organisation calls to unmask those who profit from fishing vessels flagged outside the EU Currently, there is no obligation for EU citizens and companies to register their ownership of foreign-flagged vessels with European authorities Nice, France. Oceana calls on EU Member States to require their citizens and companies to … Read more
Oceana’s findings reveal a breach of the EU Regulation on the Sustainable Management of External Fishing Fleets Oceana, using Global Fishing Watch1 data, has identified eight French vessels that appeared to be fishing without valid authorisations in the waters of Angola, Ghana, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, for 682 hours of apparent fishing, between 2020 and … Read more
PRIORITIES FOR GFCM IN 2025; In 2023 the GFCM agreed to put in place a compliance mechanism, which will allow GFCM members to take action against non-compliance with GFCM rules. This compliance mechanism will go into force at the Compliance Committee this November. We call on the GFCM CPCs to tackle cases of non-compliance with … Read more
Companies in just 10 countries, including Spain and the Netherlands, control more than half of all large-scale fishing vessels When EU- owned but foreign-flagged vessels are taken into account, the number of vessels in the EU’s distant water fleet more than doubles A new report by EqualSea Lab of the University of Santiago de Compostela … Read more
Environmental NGOs ClientEarth and Oceana are taking legal action against the Spanish government for failing to investigate and – where appropriate – sanction Spanish vessels for switching off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) for significant periods of time and for not effectively monitoring Spanish companies’ fishing operations in West Africa. With local fish stocks dwindling, … Read more
New research has uncovered a significant issue in the seafood industry: geographical mislabelling in cod. The study, led by Marine Cusa, former research assistant at Liverpool John Moores University, and currently Marine Policy Advisor at Oceana in Europe and researcher at The Technical University of Denmark, analysed over 108 Atlantic cod products and found that … Read more
Overfishing small pelagic fish, like sardinella in West Africa , has devastating consequences for the region’s coastal communities. These fish are often destined for fishmeal and fish oil production, which is heavily driven by European demand for farmed salmon, worth 8.4 billion euros in 2022. Investigations, such as those led by Danwatch, reveal that companies like … Read more
Fishing is a EUR 144 billion global industry, accounting for 15% of the world’s protein intake. Currently, reported fish catches are approximately 90 million tons annually, and the most recent estimates indicate that the annual volume of fish caught illegally could reach up to 26 million tons. Illegal fishing is particularly prevalent in regions with … Read more
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We have already protected nearly 4 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea life - but there is still more to be done.
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