Transcript
BETH LOWELL: Trans-shipping is when a vessel meets up with a larger vessel at sea and can offload things like crew, supplies, fuel and what we're most concerned about - seafood. So, what we're talking about is a fishing vessel will be out at sea catching a bunch of fish then goes up alongside a refrigerated cargo vessel, offloads its catch to that vessel, then continues to fish at sea.
AMELIA LANGFORD: What is the problem with that?
BL: So the problem is that this is happening out of the eyes and out of sight of governments and fisheries' managers. So, if we are going to responsibly manage our oceans to ensure that we have fish forever we need to know how much is coming out so we can set scientifically-based catch limits and manage our fisheries in a responsible way. When this trans-shipping is happening at sea, it's often undocumented - it's not monitored - so it provides an opportunity to have illegally caught fish mixed in with legal catches. It makes it really hard to document what's happening in our oceans.
AL: So how big a problem is this?
BL: So we did for the first time really look to find out where these hotspots of trans-shipping are and what we're finding is trans-shipping is happening around the world and specifically in areas that raise a few red flags. The ones that came up as hotspots so to speak of trans-shipping happened to be right outside of the national waters of some countries or within a donut hole so to speak in the high seas - in the barren sea near the Arctic Circle. It's a place where the countries' boundaries all sort of go round in a circle and what's in the middle is this donut hole where there's no country in charge of that water and that's where the trans-shipping is happening or just right outside the boundaries of countries - so what we're seeing is that it's right on the edge of where it could have regulations to stop it so it makes you wonder...why are they trans-shipping right outside of national lines - what are they trying to hide?
AL: And of course because it is such a hidden process, most of the time, it could be far worse than people realise?
BL: Exactly. You know, illegal fishing is a huge problem. It's not just one boat without a license. It's estimated to be between $10 to $23 billion of economic losses to fishing so it's a huge problem around the world and we suspect that this trans-shipping at sea...happening at sea, out of the eyes of the port inspectors, is where some of this illegally caught fish is entering the legal supply chain.
AL: The Pacific hasn't been one of the hotspots in this report but is it likely that trans-shipping could be going on there as well?
BL: The western Pacific is one of the most important tuna fishing areas in the world. About 80 percent of the tuna in the western Pacific is caught by fishing gear called purse-seine. These purse-seine vessels do not allow trans-shipment at sea under the regulations that regulate that fishery...So, we're seeing some areas where trans-shipping is occurring, we haven't been able to do the analysis to see which type of boat is doing it but there is definitely suspicious areas of trans-shipment in the central west Pacific area that need some further investigation to see what's happening - is it legal? Is it hiding illegal activity?
AL: What can be done about it?
BL: You know, there's a few things that we really need to move forward to have a more transparent fisheries management to ensure that we're not allowing illegally caught fish to enter the supply chain - so really ban this trans-shipment at sea, have fishing vessels offload their catch at port where it can be in the eyes of the fisheries monitored and that can be monitored and the catch documented to make sure that it is legally caught.
AL: By its very nature, it is very hard to police I imagine.
BL: Yes, of course, and that's why the more transparent we can have fisheries be around the world, especially as so much of the activity happens so far offshore, the better chance we have to have responsibly-fished oceans in the future.
AL: Just one last question, obviously this is about illegal fishing but also human rights abuses. Just tell me a bit about that?
BL: Sure, so trans-shipping of the fish catch allows the boats to stay at sea for much longer periods of time. So the longer a boat stays at sea, the higher risk there is for human rights abuses and labour violations because again the boats are far away from the watchful eyes of inspectors and regulators at port and so in our report we identified two vessels which had been at sea for more than 500 days - which had not been to a port in over a year and a half. So, if there were any human rights abuses happening on those ships they would be far from the eyes of anybody who could help any of the folks on board and with the recent stories that have been coming out about human trafficking and slavery on ships this is definitely a concern and if you required these boats to visit ports to offload their catch there would be a lower risk of this happening.
