Report sheds light on shadowy fisheries operating beyond national jurisdictions
HALIFAX — It is a phenomenon that happens far from shore, with fishing boats transferring their catches to large, refrigerated ships that carry the lucrative haul back to ports for distribution around the world.
The practice — known as transshipment — has for decades operated in the shadows, largely beyond the reach of prying eyes and national jurisdiction.
But researchers using surveillance technology that can peer down on vessels from space have for the first time shed light on the extent and locations of transshipments, an innovation going back to the 1960s that has also been linked to illegal fishing, drug smuggling and human rights abuses.
Their report, published Wednesday in Science Advances, identified global hotspots where transshipments appear to be occurring most frequently and helps fill in the blanks of what happens to a fish from the time it is caught all the way to when it ends up on the dinner table.