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The Air Force has begun utilizing B-1B Bombers over the eastern ends of the Pacific off the coast of Ecuador and around the country's Galapagos Islands. I never thought of the Air Force as an organization to be involved in something like this. However, IUU fishing has become a threat to America and this aircraft has the capabilities to help this fight. I like this article a lot because it provides how another service other than the Coast Guard is attacking this world problem. The article also shares how this has strengthen ties with other countries. Seeing the US use long range aircraft excites other countries who don't have the same capabilities.

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A B-1B Lancer aircraft assigned to the 7th Bomb Wing, Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, receives fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft assigned to the 927th Air Refueling Wing, MacDill AFB, Florida, over the Caribbean Sea, Sept. 7, 2022. The air operations between 12th Air Force and Air Mobility Command were part of a Partner Interoperability Training exercise with Panama and Ecuador to grow capacity, enhance the ability to respond to illegal fishing practices and maintain shared interest in regional security. Multilateral engagements such as this one ensures maximum resource efficiency and enable the consistent training between U.S. Southern Command, component command and partner nations. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joshua Hastings).

U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers flying from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas kept watch for signs of illegal fishing during recent sorties over the eastern end of the Pacific off the coast of Ecuador and around that country's Galapagos Islands. This would seem to be an unusual mission for the B-1Bs, which is a highly capable long-range strike platform, but it is actually not the first time the bombers have supported international law enforcement activities as a way to practice skill sets in a real-world environment.

The recent B-1B flights also highlight the Air Force's current interest in expanding the B-1B's maritime role, with a particular eye toward anti-ship missions during future high-end conflicts, especially in the Pacific. In addition, the U.S. military has become increasingly interested in ways to help challenge malign Chinese activities short of conflict, including with regard to things like illegal fishing, in the broader Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

At least two B-1Bs from the Dyess-based 7th Bomb Wing took part in this mission, which took place on September 7. The Air Force described the sorties as countering "illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing" in the course of a broader Continental United States (CONUS) Bomber Task Force (BTF) operation conducted in cooperation with the governments of Ecuador and Panama. KC-135 aerial refueling tankers flying from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida supported the B-1Bs. It's unclear if any action was taken with regard to suspected illegal fish boats from information provided by the bomber crews.

"This kind of regional military engagement strengthens our partnership with Ecuador and Panama and enhances interoperability and improves our collective readiness for a range of potential future operations - from disaster relief to humanitarian assistance to security operations," according to a statement from U.S. Southern Command. "When our forces train alongside one another we improve our ability to work together in times of crisis."

"There are certain things that only Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen can do, and this is one of them," Air Force Col. John McClung, head of the 7th Bomb Wing's 7th Operations Group, also said regarding the eastern Pacific sorties. "Based on the Airmen we have in this room, we can fly this mission and then turn around and regenerate in a matter of hours - we make it look easy, but it's tough work."

However, this is not the first time that the Air Force has also demonstrated the B-1B's ability to also act as an impromptu long-range surveillance platform, including in support of non-combat missions, thanks to its AN/AAQ-33 Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP).

This role is referred to as non-traditional intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, or NTISR. Sniper has electro-optical and infrared full-motion video cameras as well as datalink capabilities and can be used to help identify objects of interest down below, track moving targets, and generate GPS coordinates for specific points on the surface - all capabilities that fit well with the NTISR mission.

B-1Bs, as well as Air Force B-52s, have flown other kinds of NTISR missions in the past, notably over the Caribbean searching for possible drug-smuggling boats in support of regional counter-narcotics efforts. You can read more about those operations in this past War Zone piece.

In addition to providing NTISR support, B-1B flights in support of things like counter-narcotics or counter-illegal fishing operations offer valuable real-world opportunities to practice various skill sets, potentially involving the identification and tracking of actual unpredictable targets. Experience gained on these sorties could be applicable, at least in some ways, in future combat sorties, especially in maritime environments.

"We are in competition in our own hemisphere," Air Force Col. Joseph Kramer, the 7th Bomb Wing's commander, said in a statement about the recent eastern Pacific sorties. "These bomber missions demonstrate our ability to respond to threats in today's complex, dynamic and volatile global security environment anytime, anywhere."

The Galapagos, one of the focal points of the recent B-1B sorties, has been a particular flashpoint for these issues. The islands are a UNESCO-recognized World Heritage Site and biosphere reserve and the Ecuadorean government has declared a 27,000-square-mile marine reserve around them, a protected maritime area that is second only in size to the one surrounding the Great Barrier Reef.

However, a 2020 report from marine conservation group Oceana said that Chinese fishing boat fleets had accounted for virtually all of the observed fishing near the Galapagos between July 2019 and August 2020, and had carried out 73,000 total hours of fishing in just one month within that period. Similar activity has been observed around these islands since then, as can be seen in the video below.

In June, U.S. President Joe Biden signed the first ever National Security memo specifically focused on illegal fishing, which directed the Department of Defense and other federal agencies to step up cooperation and coordination to help better counter these activities. The same month, the members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue - the United States, Australia, India, and Japan - announced plans to use space-based surveillance to help monitor illegal fishing.

So, countering illegal fishing is something that the U.S. military, as well as other elements of the U.S. government, may increasingly find itself involved in, directly and indirectly, as part of larger strategies to counter China. In fact, a joint U.S. Navy-Marine Corps-Coast Guard naval strategy unveiled in 2020 highlighted a need to work harder to respond to day-to-day maritime challenges from the Chinese, and to a lesser extent, the Russians, including more monitoring of malign activities short of war.

"Together with international and whole-of-government efforts, the Naval Service will detect and document our rivals' actions that violate international law, steal resources, and infringe upon the sovereignty of other nations. We will provide evidence of malign activities to U.S. and international officials to expose this behavior and increase the reputational costs for aggressors," an official white paper on the strategy explained. "Forward naval forces, leveraging our complementary law-enforcement authorities and military capabilities, will stand ready to disrupt malign activities through assertive operations. Our expanded efforts will refute the false narratives of our rivals and demonstrate the United States' commitment to protecting the rules-based order."

That same document criticized the Chinese government specifically for, among other things, its "state-subsidized distant-water fishing fleet [that] steals vital resources from nations unable to defend their own exclusive economic zones."

In terms of U.S. military assets, U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol planes would be far better suited to this mission. Unmanned aircraft designed to conduct persistent broad-area intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations, such as the Navy's MQ-4C Tritons or Q-9 Reaper series, would be another option. Persistent maritime surveillance is one mission envisioned for future very-high-flying drones with extremely high endurance like the Airbus Zephyr S, an example of which recently crashed in Arizona after more than two months aloft as part of a U.S. Army test.

Smaller commercial-derived platforms, especially business jet and turboprop aircraft, configured for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, present another far more economical platform. This is something The War Zone has noted in the past when discussing using bombers in the NTISR role in support of counter-narcotics operations. The U.S. military already employs contractor-operated ISR aircraft for counter-drug missions.

There is still the possibility that B-1Bs could fly more sporadic counter-illegal fishing sorites as a way to help hone skills that could be valuable in future maritime combat operations, especially in the Pacific, while also providing useful real-world support to allies and partners.

Contact the author: joe@thedrive.com

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B-1B Bombers Are Hunting Illegal Fishing Boats Off South America

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U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers flying from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas kept watch for signs of illegal fishing during recent sorties over the eastern end of the Pacific off the coast of Ecuador and around that country's Galapagos Islands.

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Twitter thread from the Food and Agriculture Organization! This post was a campaign to show how the FAO utilizes their tools to combat IUU fishing. It was a quick video with relevant exposure to some techniques the world is using to stop IUU fishing.

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Ports play a key role in ensuring that the fish that reaches our markets does not come from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Check out 3 @FAO tools that are helping countries combat #IUUFishing 👇

#COFI35

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Ports play a key role in ensuring that the fish that reaches our markets does not come from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Check out 3 @FAO tools that are helping countries combat #IUUFishing 👇

#COFI35 https://t.co/erKxzpA1Af

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Ports play a key role in ensuring that the fish that reaches our markets does not come from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Check out 3 @FAO tools that are helping countries combat #IUUFishing 👇#COFI35 pic.twitter.com/erKxzpA1Af
— Food and Agriculture Organization (@FAO) September 6, 2022

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props_source.data.text
Ports play a key role in ensuring that the fish that reaches our markets does not come from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Check out 3 @FAO tools that are helping countries combat #IUUFishing 👇

#COFI35 https://t.co/erKxzpA1Af

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
Ports play a key role in ensuring that the fish that reaches our markets does not come from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Check out 3 @FAO tools that are helping countries combat #IUUFishing 👇

#COFI35 https://t.co/erKxzpA1Af

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
Ports play a key role in ensuring that the fish that reaches our markets does not come from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Check out 3 @FAO tools that are helping countries combat #IUUFishing 👇

#COFI35

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Back in June Joe Biden signed a National Security Memorandum to combat IUU fishing. This was "urgent action" the US deemed necessary.

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Biden swipes at China with memorandum to combat illegal fishing

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U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday signed a national security memorandum to fight illegal fishing, part of pledged efforts to help countries combat alleged violations by fishing fleets, including those of China.

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The article does a really great job at looking into IUU fishing along Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands as well as the competition the US is facing with places like China with increasing demands. The fishing industry and economic market that coincides has made IUU fishing a low-risk high reward activity. This is backwards but because the competition for economic power exists countries like China see IUU fishing as an opportunity to grow and prosper.

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A Chinese fleet of 340 fishing trawlers just south of the Galapagos Islands is causing outrage from Quito to Washington. For Latin American nations like Ecuador, the presence of the state-subsidized distant-water fishing fleet offers a glimpse into the future of a dangerous combination: China's increasing demand for resources, extractionist policies, disregard for maritime sovereignty, and irresponsible environmental practices. How can the United States best support regional partners like Ecuador, who despite siginificant economic ties to China are becoming increasingly aggravated at Chinese revisionist behavior off their shores? It is this simple: Follow their lead.

Great-power competition is not a future challenge - an abstract phenomenon to plan and prepare for. It is already taking place today. The People's Republic of China operates the largest state-subsidized fishing fleet in the world. The questionable practices of the hundreds of Chinese vessels operating off the west coast of South America illustrate the extent to which competition with an ascendant China is already underway in the maritime domain - and far beyond the South China Sea.

In July, Ecuadorian Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrin announced that the Ecuadorian navy was "on alert" and monitoring a fleet of Chinese fishing trawlers south of the Galapagos economic exclusion zone. The statement sparked concern both domestically and abroad. While Chinese fishing vessels have been active in the area in previous years, the large size of this summer's fleet made it noteworthy. The response included a statement from Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno, who vowed to work toward a regional posture to defend the biodiverse region. A statement from Ecuador's former environment minister, Yolanda Kakabadse, noted that the "fleet's size and aggressiveness against marine species is a big threat to the balance of species in the Galapagos." Ecuador's navy has conducted patrols in the area, including a flyover.
'Rule-breaking and Willful Environmental Degradation'
On the international front, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a stern press statement and a tweet admonishing China for its predatory fishing practices in the Galapagos. The statement calls out China for subsidizing "the world's largest commercial fishing fleet, which routinely violates the sovereign rights and jurisdiction of coastal states, fishes without permission, and overfishes licensing agreements." Likewise, Pompeo reaffirmed U.S. support for Ecuador and highlighted China's "willful environmental degradation of the oceans."

Nongovernmental organizations are also speaking out against the activity. Australia's Blue Planet Society posted a map depicting the Chinese vessels in the vicinity of the islands with an ominous comment: "We are watching the destruction of the ocean in real time." The statement likely refers to certain industrial fishing practices, as the boats were observed using stadium-style lighting to attract squid, which can lead to overfishing of the species. Furthermore, many of the vessels are bottom trawlers, which means they use nets that scrape the sea floor to catch fish and invertebrates like shrimp. Bottom trawling is widely regarded as destructive and destabilizing for marine ecosystems. Since the practice is extremely efficient at trapping fish, if unregulated it can lead to overfishing. Other concerns are that bottom trawling is indiscriminate and other animals like whales, dolphins, and even seabirds can get caught in nets and become "bycatch." Lastly, the dragging of the nets damages the seabed, including delicate species like coral, sea anemone, and urchin. Even the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Centre registered its concern regarding the "massive presence of industrial fishing vessels" in the ecologically sensitive Galapagos region, although it refrained from calling out China by name.
The Galapagos Islands: A Natural Wonder
The Galapagos Islands, which belong to Ecuador, are situated about 560 miles off Ecuador's Pacific coast. The United Nations designated the islands a World Heritage Site in 1978 in recognition of the immense biodiversity and large number of endemic species found on the islands. The surrounding Galapagos Maritime Reserve was similarly added to the list in 2001. Home to the Galapagos tortoise and the Darwin finches that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, the islands occupy a special place in the collective imagination.
The Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. (Created from base map by author)
The islands partially owe their high levels of biodensity and biodiversity to their location at the confluence of volcanic activity and multiple ocean currents - the South Equatorial Current, the Cromwell Current, the Panama Current, and the Humboldt (or Peruvian) Current. The Humboldt Current brings cold, nutrient-dense waters from the south, making the surrounding equatorial waters of the Galapagos Islands rich in animal life. The area is home to over 3,000 marine species, including critically endangered creatures like the scalloped hammerhead shark. These unique geographical features also make the surrounding waters a productive fishery.
Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing
Unfortunately, the rich fishing grounds surrounding the islands also make them vulnerable to the increasingly transnational crime of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. While illegal fishing is not a new phenomenon, the upward trend of commercial fishing fleets from outside the region - mostly Chinese - arriving in regional waters is making it difficult for some Latin American maritime security forces to monitor the activity. In addition to protecting their exclusive economic zones and commercial interests, countries like Ecuador are concerned with protecting the environment and delicate ecosystems from the threats of overfishing and habitat destruction. According to the Trump administration's May 2020 United States Strategic Approach to the People's Republic of China, China "ranks first in the world for illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in coastal nations' waters around the world, threatening local economies and harming the marine environment."

In fact, one of the reasons that the appearance of the large fishing fleet caused so much alarm in Ecuador was the memory of a 2017 incident in which a Chinese fishing trawler, Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999, was interdicted with 6,600 illegally obtained sharks onboard - among them endangered whale sharks and hammerhead sharks.

Surely other Latin American nations are also watching closely. Argentina, Peru, and Chile have had their own confrontations in recent years with Chinese fishing fleets near their exclusive economic zones. In March 2016 in the South Atlantic the Argentinian coast guard caught three Chinese vessels fishing illegally in Argentina's waters. Coast guard ships and helicopters intervened, but the Chinese vessels ignored warnings. While two vessels fled, the third, Lu Yan Yuan Yu 010, was shot at by the Argentinian patrol forces - and then reportedly tried to ram the Argentinian vessel before it sank. In 2018, Peruvian authorities stopped the Chinese vessel Runda 608 for fishing without authorization in Peruvian waters. Similarly, Chilean forces boarded and searched a Chinese vessel in their exclusive economic zone in 2015 - although no illegal cargo was found aboard.

In recognition of the fact that illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing is of regional concern, the commander of Ecuador's navy, Rear Adm. Darwin Jarrin, has stated his intention to cooperate with Colombia and Peru on both information sharing and response efforts. Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Luis Gallegos signaled a commitment to working toward a regional approach by acknowledging the necessity of "bilateral agreements with other countries with regards to illegal fishing, to monitor every ship that's in the South Pacific."
A Facebook post from the Ecuadorian navy on Aug. 3, as the largest Chinese fishing fleet in several years was a few miles outside Ecuadorian waters. (Photo by the author)
The threat from encroaching Chinese fishing fleets is only projected to grow as climate change and the rising global population mean that demand for fish will continue to increase. Currently the top consumer of seafood globally, China's fish consumption is projected to grow at six percent annually. China is already regularly clashing with neighbors in the South China Sea over fishing practices, including a recent flare-up with Japan around the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. In addition to being an affront to national sovereignty, extra-regional illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing denies regional economies access to valuable natural resources - in this case, marine protein - for both domestic and international markets. For a country already indebted to China to the tune of $5.3 billion, the menace of fishing illegally off Ecuador's coast likely adds insult to injury.
Sino-Ecuadorian Relations: Partnership or "Debt-Trap Diplomacy?"
Ecuador has historical ties to China, which were strengthened in 2007 after the election of President Rafael Correa as part of the " pink tide" - a wave of transitions to left-leaning, anti-United States administrations in the region. A small example of this kind of sentiment can be seen in the fact that, in a jab to the United States, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was offered diplomatic refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012, to avoid extradition.

During Correa's presidency, the country took billions of dollars in loans from China - in exchange, PetroEcuador, Ecuador's state oil company, supplied China with crude oil. Some, like Pompeo, have criticized such economic agreements as " debt-trap diplomacy" - a predatory tactic where a creditor nation intentionally allows a debtor to overextend and then demands excessive economic or diplomatic concessions (e.g., fishing rights). Consider the case of Sri Lanka. Unable to continue servicing debts to China, the country completed a debt/equity swap and handed over the strategic port facility at Hambantota to China Merchants Port Holdings.

In 2017, Ecuador elected Moreno, who served as Correa's vice president from 2007 to 2013. The two have since had a public falling-out, and Moreno has reversed some of Correa's main legislative victories. Correa, living in exile in his wife's native Belgium, was found guilty in April of bribery and corruption charges in Ecuador. He was also charged in Ecuador in 2018 for his role in a kidnapping attempt of a political rival.
New Era of U.S.-Ecuadorian Cooperation
With the election of Moreno in 2017, U.S.-Ecuadorian relations are warming, as evidenced by Ecuador granting refueling permissions for U.S. counter-drug surveillance planes in the Galapagos. Also, the Ecuadorian navy participated in UNITAS 2019, a United States-led multinational maritime exercise. Coincidentally (or not), in 2019 Assange's Ecuadorian citizenship was rescinded, and he was removed from the country's embassy in London.

Adm. Craig Faller, Commander of United States Southern Command, reaffirmed U.S. commitment to the region in his 2018 Senate nomination hearing: "My plain and simple message to our friends in the region is 'the United States is a reliable and trustworthy security partner' ... Our commitment is unwavering."
U.S. Navy Adm. Craig Faller meets with Ecuadorian Minister of Defense Gen. Oswaldo Jarrin in 2019. (Photo courtesy U.S. Embassy Ecuador)
Despite warming diplomatic and military relations with the United States, Ecuador is still economically enmeshed with China. In addition to its existing debt, the Moreno administration is currently negotiating an additional $2 billion loan deal. However, standing with Ecuador against Chinese illegal fishing represents an excellent opportunity for the United States to reinforce a new era of partnership and cooperation with Ecuador. Doing so is in line with a mandate from the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which points out that revisionist states "are particularly adept at exploiting their economic relationships with many of our security partners. We will support U.S. interagency approaches and work by, with, and through our allies and partners to secure our interests and counteract this coercion."
Future Threat of Chinese Navy Presence in the Region
While this obscure diplomatic event seems relatively benign on the competition continuum, one can extrapolate to envision what future escalation could look like in the western hemisphere if this type of activity goes unchecked. In a piece for the Center for International Maritime Security, W. Alejandro Sanchez observes, "Demographic growth, the eternal quest for profit, and depleting maritime life in other bodies of water mean that extra-regional fleets will travel great distances for new sources of fish."

As China looks to secure resources - including food - for its 1.43 billion citizens, it could resort to escalatory tactics like embarking security crews to intimidate regional maritime patrol forces looking to protect their waters, or even deploying naval combatants to escort the fleets. The People's Armed Forces Maritime Militia has been deployed in this role regularly in the South China Sea with much success, to the chagrin of regional neighbors. In an alarming incident in 2016, a Chinese fishing vessel rammed and sank a South Korean coast guard vessel in an altercation in the Yellow Sea.

U.S. Naval Academy Professor Claude Berube articulates the urgency of the situation in his piece "Stand Up a Joint Interagency Task Force to Fight Illegal Fishing," pointing out that

"Chinese fishing vessels are plying global waters for their own interests, but tomorrow, their white hulls will follow to protect these interests. And then, given the quickly growing size of the Chinese Navy, gray hulls will eventually ensure that fishing fleets go virtually unimpeded by any nation."

The militarization of the maritime commons in a region like Latin America, which has largely avoided a turn to interstate conflict, would be unfortunate.

As part of a great-power competition strategy, it remains important for the United States to focus on maintaining military advantage to dominate in a "high-end" fight. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that countering Chinese " sharp power " consistently will likely be the best predictor of long-term success against the revisionist power. It is in the consistency of U.S. response to delicate incidents like the Chinese state-subsidized fishing fleet near the Galapagos Islands that the United States can demonstrate its commitment to international maritime norms.

In this case, the United States, through Pompeo's pointed press statement and tweet, used diplomatic tactics to counter China's attempts at redefining existing maritime norms. The statement simultaneously supported a regional partner, condemned China's extractive economic practices and disregard for environmental stewardship, and reaffirmed a commitment to a rules-based international order. In a more subtle move, a well-timed tweet from U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy showing a picturesque image of the Galapagos Islands from space amid the controversy is a good example of how the United States can compete with China across domains - in this case, in the information space.
U.S. Navy SEAL and Astronaut Chris Cassidy tweets a photo of the Galapagos Islands Aug. 10. (Screenshot by the author)
Recommendations for Regional Engagement
Given relatively small defense budgets in Latin America, some countries might welcome the invited presence of U.S. assets to help maintain maritime domain awareness, at least in the short term. These capabilities could include assets from the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and the U.S. Fourth Fleet, such as maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft, unmanned aerial systems at sea, and surface ships. In order to build proficiency in specialty skills - from operating unmanned aerial systems to outboard motor maintenance - host nations can request tailored mobile training teams from entities like the U.S. Special Operations Command's Naval Small Craft and Instructional Training School. Intelligence sharing would also be an essential part of any solution. The topic could also be explored in regular security cooperation events like Southern Partnership Station and maritime exercises.

In developing a broader approach for partnering with Latin American states who might want to cooperate to counter Chinese revisionist behavior in the maritime commons, the United States should carefully consider attitudes regarding both intervention and conflict in the region.
Acknowledging Regional Attitudes toward U.S. Intervention
First, decision-makers should keep in mind the regional collective memory toward previous U.S. involvement in the region. Prior U.S. military and intelligence activities loom large in places like Chile, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Panama (among others). It is not uncommon in the cities of Latin America to see graffiti with some version of "Go home, Yankee imperialists." Taking those realities and attitudes into account, it follows that a practical approach would ensure that Latin American partners feel like they are in the driver's seat in any combined effort. This will take patience for the U.S. military establishment but will pay dividends in the long run. If the choices are to lead, follow, or get out of the way, the United States should do its best to follow and allow the affected countries, like Ecuador, to set the pace for cooperative efforts.
Do No Harm
Second, the United States should recognize the abiding, transnational inclination within Latin America toward cooperation and avoiding interstate conflict. There have certainly been instances of interstate armed conflict in the region including the Cenepa War (fought by Ecuador and Peru, 1995), the Football War (fought by El Salvador and Honduras, 1969), the Chaco War (fought by Bolivia and Paraguay, 1932-35), the Falklands or Malvinas War (fought by Argentina and the United Kingdom, 1982), and the War of the Pacific (fought by Chile and a Bolivia-Peru alliance, 1879-84). But the overwhelming trend demonstrates a relative lack of interstate conflict (when compared to parts of Africa or the Middle East, for example). This commitment to cooperation can be observed in that neighboring states consciously modulate increases in defense spending to foster trust and not alarm one another. The United States should be mindful to not upset this balance when considering programs like foreign military sales.

This geopolitical trend can partly be explained by similarities in contemporary histories, which largely center on keeping foreign powers at bay and may have paved the way for the high levels of regional cooperation. The Andean nations (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru), for example, all gained independence from Spain between 1810 (Colombia) and 1825 (Bolivia). Additionally, some nations have pursued regional cooperation efforts largely in order to balance perceived threats from extra-regional powers, namely the United States. The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, initiated by Cuba and Venezuela in 2004, is an example of regional cooperation to counter U.S. influence (of note, Ecuador exited the alliance in 2018).

Relative ethnic, linguistic, and religious homogeneity in many parts of South America ( at least among elites) serves to facilitate regional cooperation. Unlike in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria (where the Department of Defense has largely focused over the past two decades), where sectarianism and tribalism are major factors, Latin America, although diverse, does not have the same challenge of overcoming divisions rooted in centuries of factional violence. That is not to say that the region is without challenges to integration, but any U.S. policies in Latin America should strive to continue fostering this tendency toward cooperation, as a strong regional posture will be required in countering the Chinese agenda in Latin America.

Acknowledging the relative interstate peace in Latin America is not to say that the region is devoid of security challenges or latent tensions. Venezuela, mired in political and economic turmoil, is facing the Western Hemisphere's largest ever humanitarian and migrant crisis. Colombia still grapples with significant internal challenges from armed groups in the aftermath of civil conflict and insurgency. Additionally, Latin American cities occupy the top ten spots on lists of the world's most dangerous cities. This statistic is particularly staggering because Latin America is home to only eight percent of the global population. Much of the violence centers on transnational organized crime and gang activity associated with illicit trafficking in humans, drugs, and weapons. Reporting also suggests that Latin American transnational criminal organizations have collaborated with terror groups like Hizballah, which has a longstanding presence in the tri-border area between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay.
Tailored Approach
Latin America faces unique challenges that will require tailored approaches. In their piece entitled "Navigating the future - and understanding the troubled past - of great-power competition in Latin America," Ryan Kertis and Chris Bernotavicius advocate for a unique, regionally specific approach. They astutely point out that "rule of law, social equality, and a strong civil society are more vital to any strategy to compete with foreign influence than the scale of military aid. During the Cold War, strong social forces, compounded by weak economic structures, created the conditions for increased communist influence. No amount of military aid was going to change those facts. The same may be true for this new era of competition." Therefore, viewing the situation as an opportunity to aid allies in building capacity, rather than to counter a revisionist adversary, should remain at the forefront. This approach is not only likely to yield better outcomes, but it also demonstrates U.S. commitment to being a responsible power and provides a foil against Chinese malign activity in the region.

Policymakers should, therefore, be mindful of the potential for misconceptions surrounding U.S. involvement and be deliberate in their messaging to both allies and partners as well as international audiences. Any effort should be a Latin American effort, by Latin Americans for Latin America - with security cooperation support from the United States as and when requested. To that end, the United States should continually encourage bilateral and regional solutions, leveraging organizations like the Organization of American States.

With the apparent failure of the "pink tide," as Latin American nations have largely eschewed leftist candidates at the ballot box, the United States should capitalize on this momentum. In events like the industrial fishing fleet near the Galapagos, the international community is beginning to see the perils of coercive Chinese influence and revisionism first hand, from breaches of sovereignty to disregard for overfishing in protected ecosystems. Calling attention to the problem - in the Ecuadorian and international media - also represents an excellent first step. It did not hurt that the Chinese aggression happened to be in the vicinity of a treasured ecological reserve, which helped propel this story into media outlets it might not have otherwise reached.
True Colors
U.S. defense officials and policymakers alike often lament the challenge of competing with an authoritarian regime like the Chinese Communist Party, whose policies and operations are not subject to the same moral or ethical constraints as the United States. While an authoritarian approach can sometimes work out favorably for these regimes, sometimes it does not. This is one of those cases. Sending a fishing fleet 9,000 miles across an ocean to fish only miles outside of your "partner's" treasured maritime ecological reserve sends a message - one that both Ecuador and the international community received loud and clear - that China's insatiable appetite for natural resources and disregard for international norms are a dangerous combination.

In this sense, the United States can hope to outmaneuver against China - or let China outmaneuver against itself - without ever firing a shot.

Lisa McKinnon Munde is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and received a master of arts in Latin American Studies from Stanford University. She served six years as a naval intelligence officer, including assignments at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, VFA-97 and USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, and Naval Special Warfare Group ONE. She is a consultant for Naval Special Warfare Command on matters relating to doctrine, plans, and strategy. Lisa is interested in the intersection of Latin America, military strategy, and current events.
Connect via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisamunde/
Image: Maxpixel

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The Great Fishing Competition - War on the Rocks

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A Chinese fleet of 340 fishing trawlers just south of the Galapagos Islands is causing outrage from Quito to Washington. For Latin American nations like Ecuador, the presence of the state-subsidized distant-water fishing fleet offers a glimpse into the future of a dangerous combination: China's increasing demand for resources, extractionist policies, disregard for maritime sovereignty, and irresponsible environmental practices.

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This article discusses an intelligence led initiative to assist poorer states to combat IUU through two initiatives called the Joint Analytical Cell and the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness. When poorer states can't fight this problem, they need help and support from others. These initiatives and alliances will increase awareness and combat IUU fishing around the world.

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Global Fishing Watch is welcoming a stepped-up global response to the scourge of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Two separate anti-IUU initiatives have been launched in the past two months: the Joint Analytical Cell and the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness.

Founded by the USAID-funded International Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance Network as well as data focused monitoring groups Global Fishing Watch and TMT, the JAC aims to harness innovative technology and fisheries expertise to increase data sharing and collaboration among governments and non-state actors in the fight against IUU.

A May meeting in Tokyo of the Quad [Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S.] saw the launch of the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, an intelligence-led initiative to assist poorer states to combat IUU, with particular emphasis on keeping vessels from the Chinese distant-water fleet - the world's biggest - from operating illegally.

"We welcome growing political will and collaboration among states to address IUU fishing. We also believe that innovation and new technologies to track vessels at sea are vital, along with ensuring information is shared and actionable," GFW Director of Communications Kimberly Vosburgh told SeafoodSource.

GFW is currently working with the U.S. Coast Guard, which draws upon GFW data and analysis to target its enforcement patrols. In 2021, the USCG used GFW data in its undertaking of a two-month patrol in support of Operation North Pacific Guard.

"The collaboration built on the inaugural support we provided in 2019, which saw a threefold increase in vessel boardings and an eightfold increase in identified violations compared to 2018," Vosburgh said.

Canada, South Korea, and Japan also participated in the operation, which patrolled the high seas of the North Pacific Ocean and uncovered 450 illegally taken shark fins and 42 potential violations of regional fisheries management organization measures.

"Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing undermines the international regulation and stewardship of keystone ocean species. It cheats millions of people living in coastal communities out of hard-earned income and causes serious harm to our marine ecosystems," Canadian Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Joyce Murray said in a press release. "Canada will continue to work with our federal, international, and non-governmental partners to combat these harmful practices. Together, we'll protect our waters and the livelihoods of hard-working, law-abiding harvesters, at home and around the world."
Photo courtesy of Global Fishing Watch

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Global Fishing Watch welcomes international collaboration in fight against IUU fishing

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Global Fishing Watch is welcoming a stepped-up global response to the scourge of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Two separate anti-IUU initiatives have been launched in the past two months: the Joint Analytical Cell and the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness.

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This site is an index of IUU Fishing statistics scored 1-5 with 5 being the worst. I played around on this website for probably a good 30 minutes because it was really interesting to see the data match most of the articles I have read on this topic. China is ranked number 1 meaning they are the guiltiest of IUU Fishing. This isn't surprising after what I have read. This map provides a detailed view of each country's role in IUU fishing.

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The IUU Fishing Index provides a measure of the degree to which states are exposed to and effectively combat IUU fishing. The Index provides an IUU fishing score for all coastal states of between 1 and 5 (1 being the best, and 5 the worst).

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China continues to focus on the Galapagos Islands taking large catches and fishing continuously without returning to port. Great MAPS and images presented in this article!

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Note: Data for 2020 is from June 2020 through May 2021; for 2021, it is from June 2021 through May 2022.

Over the last two decades, China has built the world's largest deep-water fishing fleet, by far, with nearly 3,000 ships. Having severely depleted stocks in its own coastal waters, China now fishes in any ocean in the world, and on a scale that dwarfs some countries' entire fleets near their own waters.

The impact is increasingly being felt from the Indian Ocean to the South Pacific, from the coasts of Africa to those off South America - a manifestation on the high seas of China's global economic might.

The Chinese effort has prompted diplomatic and legal protests. The fleet has also been linked to illegal activity, including encroaching on other countries' territorial waters, tolerating labor abuses and catching endangered species. In 2017, Ecuador seized a refrigerated cargo ship, the Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999, carrying an illicit cargo of 6,620 sharks, whose fins are a delicacy in China.

Much of what China does, however, is legal - or, on the open seas at least, largely unregulated. Given the growing demands of an increasingly prosperous consumer class in China, it is unlikely to end soon. That doesn't mean it is sustainable.

In the summer of 2020, the conservation group Oceana counted nearly 300 Chinese ships operating near the Galápagos, just outside Ecuador's exclusive economic zone, the 200 nautical miles off its territory where it maintains rights to natural resources under the Law of the Sea Treaty. The ships hugged the zone so tightly that satellite mapping of their positions traced the zone's boundary.

Together, they accounted for nearly 99 percent of the fishing near the Galápagos. No other country came close.

Note: "Other countries" are 35 entities including South Korea, Spain and Taiwan. Data is for the high seas within 50 nautical miles (about 57 miles) of the Ecuador, Peru and Argentina's exclusive economic zones. Fishing activity near the disputed exclusive economic zone of the Falkland Islands was omitted. Data for 2022 is through May 31. By The New York Times

"Our sea can't handle this pressure anymore," said Alberto Andrade, a fisherman from the Galápagos. The presence of so many Chinese vessels, he added, has made it harder for local fishermen inside Ecuador's territorial waters, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Mr. Andrade has organized a group of fishermen, the Island Front for the Galápagos Marine Reserve, to call for the expansion of fishery protections around the islands.

"The industrial fleets are razing the stocks, and we are afraid that in the future there will be no more fishery," he said. "Not even the pandemic stopped them."

An Industrial Effort

China can fish on such an industrial scale because of vessels like Hai Feng 718, a refrigerated cargo ship built in Japan in 1996. It is registered in Panama and managed by a company in Beijing called Zhongyu Global Seafood Corporation.

Its owner is a state-owned enterprise: the China National Fisheries Corporation.

Hai Feng 718 is known as a carrier vessel, or mothership. It has refrigerated storage holds to preserve tons of catch. It also carries fuel and other supplies for smaller ships that can unload their hauls and resupply their crews at sea. As a result, the other vessels do not need to spend time returning to port, allowing them to fish almost continuously.

Over the course of a year beginning June 2021, the Hai Feng 718 met at least 70 smaller Chinese-flagged fishing vessels in various locations at sea, according to Global Fishing Watch, a research organization that assembles location data from ship transponders. Each encounter, known as a transshipment, represents the transfer of tons of fish that the smaller ships would have had to unload in port hundreds of miles away.

Together the vessels followed the coasts of South America in what has become a year-round pursuit of catch.

Note: Data is from June 2021 through May 2022. By The New York Times

After leaving Weihai, a port town in China's Shandong Province, the Hai Feng 718 arrived in the Galápagos in August 2021 and spent nearly a month in the waters off Ecuador's exclusive economic zone. There it serviced numerous ships like the Hebei 8588.

Such vessels are designed for catching squid, one of the prizes for the fleet. The lights the ships use at night to lure squid to the surface are so bright they can be tracked from space.

A month later, the Chinese fleet traveled to the coast of Peru, where the Hai Feng 718 sidled up to more than two dozen smaller vessels, some of them multiple times, including, again, the Hebei 8588.

Loaded with catch, the mothership returned to China. By last December, it was at sea again, this time heading west through the Indian Ocean. It arrived off the coast of Argentina for the start of the squid season there in January. In May, it was once again off the coast of the Galápagos.

Galápagos Islands

ECUADOR

PERU

ARGENTINA

SOUTH AMERICA

Exclusive economic zones

Note: Data is from June 2021 through May 2022. By The New York Times

These operations have allowed a boom in the squid harvest. Between 1990 and 2019, the number of deep-water squid boats soared from six to 528, while the annual reported catch rose from about 5,000 tons to 278,000, according to a report this year by Global Fishing Watch. In 2019, China accounted for nearly all the squid boats operating in the South Pacific.

The arrangement of transferring catch to another vessel is not illegal, but according to experts, the use of the motherships makes it easy to underreport the catch and disguise its origins. Other places also deploy deep-water fleets, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, but none do so on the scale of China.

The Hai Feng 718 alone has more than 500,000 cubic feet of cargo space, enough to carry thousands of tons of fish.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations By The New York Times; Photograph by Fernanda Ligabue/Greenpeace

Global Fishing Watch has tracked scores of unexplained "loitering events," where larger ships linger in one area without any recorded meetings between the carriers and smaller ships. Experts warn that the smaller ships may be turning off their transponders to avoid detection to disguise illegal or unregulated catch.

The impact on certain species like squid off the coast of South America is difficult to measure exactly. In some regions, like the South Pacific, international agreements require countries to report their haul, though underreporting is believed to be common. In the South Atlantic, there is no such agreement.

There are already worrisome signs of diminishing stocks, which could foreshadow a broader ecological collapse.

"The concern is the sheer number of ships and the lack of accountability, to know how much is being fished out and where it's going to," said Marla Valentine, an oceanographer with Oceana, the conservation group. "And I'm worried that the impacts that are happening now are going to cascade into the future.

"Because it's not just the squid that are going to be affected," she added. "It's going to be everything that feeds on the squid, too."

The Global Backlash

The appearance of the Chinese fleet on the edge of the Galápagos in 2020 focused international attention on the industrial scale of China's fishing fleet. Ecuador lodged a protest in Beijing. Its president at the time, Lenín Moreno, vowed on Twitter to defend the marine sanctuary, which he called "a seedbed of life for the entire planet."

China has responded with offers of concessions. It announced moratoriums on fishing in certain areas, though critics noted that the restrictions apply to seasons when the fish are not as abundant. It vowed to cap the size of its deep-water fleet, though not to reduce it, and to trim the government subsidies it provides fishing companies, many still state-owned or controlled.

In the year that followed the furor over the Galápagos, the bulk of the Chinese fleet kept a greater distance from Ecuador's exclusive economic zone. Otherwise it continued to fish as much as before.

In Argentina, a group of environmentalists, supported by the Gallifrey Foundation, an ocean conservation organization, filed an injunction with the country's top court last year in the hope of prodding the government to do more to comply with its constitutional obligations to protect the environment. They plan to submit a similar injunction in the coming months in Ecuador.

"We have a permanent Chinese fleet 200 miles off our coast," said Pablo Ferrara, a lawyer and professor at the University of Salvador in Buenos Aires, referring to the distance covered by Argentina's exclusive economic zone.

Argentina's navy, which sank a Chinese fishing boat inside the zone in 2016, has since announced it would add four new patrol ships to step up its enforcement efforts in its coastal waters.

The United States, too, has pledged to assist smaller nations to counter China's illegal or unregulated fishing practices. The U.S. Coast Guard, which now calls the practice one of the greatest security threats in the oceans, has dispatched patrol ships to the South Pacific.

In July, President Biden issued a national security memorandum pledging to increase monitoring of the industry. Speaking virtually at a forum of Pacific nations that month, Vice President Kamala Harris said the United States would triple American assistance to help the nations patrol their waters, offering $60 million a year for the next decade.

Such efforts may help in territorial waters, but they do little to restrict China's fleet on the open seas. The consumption of fish worldwide continues to rise, reaching a record high in 2019. At the same time, the known stocks of most species of fish continue to decline, according to the latest report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

"The challenge is to persuade China that it, too, has a need to ensure the long-range sustainability of the ocean's resources," said Duncan Currie, an international environmental lawyer who advises the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition. "It's not going to be there forever."

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How China Targets the Global Fish Supply

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Note: Data for 2020 is from June 2020 through May 2021; for 2021, it is from June 2021 through May 2022. Over the last two decades, China has built the world's largest deep-water fishing fleet, by far, with nearly 3,000 ships.

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The Commandant of the United States Coast Guard posted about a recent visit to Costa Rica where she met with the president and members of the Costa Rican Coast Guard to discuss IUU fishing as well as drug trafficking.

As a member of the Coast Guard and somoen who had been researching this topic for a few weeks, it was rewarding to see that this organization is taking the necessary steps to end IUU fishing. This public post displays the stance the US and Coast Guard have on this topic.

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Admiral Linda Fagan (@commandantuscg)

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A 2019 photo of a map where fishing vessels located in the pacific. I thought this was a cool representation of how large the world's fishing fleet is. When I read articles and think of the decreasing seabed, I am no longer skeptical of that claim due to so many fishermen on our waters.

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This short article discusses how the European Union has failed to eliminate illegal seafood products from markets. This was a pledge from 2020 and the article quotes, "Member states need to step up the fight." This is a short article but relevant to this class. It's a call to action from the European Union.

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Around the world, fish fraud is a massive problem and amounts to millions of tonnes. Between 11% and 19% of fish are caught without being declared, without a license, without respecting minimum sizes or quotas, out of season, with prohibited gear or in prohibited areas. In short, outside of any regulation.

The European Union (EU) had pledged to eliminate these illegal seafood products from its markets by 2020. However, it has not achieved this, noted the European Court of Auditors in a report published on Monday, September 26, which determined that"Member States need to step up [the] fight."

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing) is "one of the greatest threats to marine ecosystems," said the Luxembourg-based court in its audit of the methods implemented by the EU-27 and the European Commission to combat these vile activities.

Worldwide, it affects between 10 and 26 million tonnes of catches per year, equaling between €10.4 and €23.9 billion, according to estimates published in PLoS ONE in 2009 and included in this report. This illegal trade ends up on the plates of European consumers, who are the world's largest importers of fishery products.

Illegal practices undermine efforts to sustainably manage catches and push "some to the brink of collapse," while fishery resources are already under stress, with 94% of populations either overfished or exploited to capacity.

Read more Subscribers only European Commission decides to protect 16,000 km2 of vulnerable marine ecosystems

Yellow and red cards for dishonest practices

The common fisheries policy falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the EU. It is up to the Member States to provide the means to implement the policy. After delving into the complex network of controls and sanctions specific to each country, Eva Lindström, responsible for this audit carried out in response to a request from the European Parliament in Strasbourg, concluded that they were"partially effective" and suffered from major disparity and carelessness.

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The EU imports 60% of the fishery products it consumes, at a cost of €23 billion in 2020

However, the answer is not simple. The EU imports 60% of the fishery products it consumes, mainly from Norway, followed by China, the United Kingdom, Ecuador, Morocco, the United States and Iceland, at a cost of €23 billion in 2020. But its controls must also apply to its own fleets, whether they are conducting their campaigns in the Baltic, the English Channel or the Mediterranean or tracking tuna in the Indian Ocean. With their 79,000 vessels, the European fleets contribute 6% of the world's production and generate €6.3 billion in revenue each year.
You have 53.04% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.

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The EU has failed to prevent illegal fishing

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Around the world, fish fraud is a massive problem and amounts to millions of tonnes. Between 11% and 19% of fish are caught without being declared, without a license, without respecting minimum sizes or quotas, out of season, with prohibited gear or in prohibited areas. In short, outside of any regulation.

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Article provides 5 ways IUU fishing threatens National Security. These five lenses have helped me understand this topic even further. It made me look at things differently and led to further research. A great read not much to comment but felt necessary to add!

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U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Bryan Jackson
As of 2020, the U.S. Coast Guard declared Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing as the leading maritime security threat due to the expected deterioration of fragile coastal States and increased tension among foreign-fishing Nations, which, if left unchecked, would threaten geopolitical stability around the world.

IUU fishing is the practice of fishing with disregard for maritime and fisheries laws or regulations. Illegal fishing refers to any fishing occurring in violation of applicable laws and regulations. Unreported fishing encompasses fishing activities that are not reported or misreported to relevant authorities. Unregulated fishing is defined as occurring in areas or for fish stocks for which there are no applicable conservation or management measures. Such fishing activities are conducted in a manner inconsistent with conservation measures set under international law. Fishing activities are also unregulated when occurring within the boundaries of a Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO) and carried out by vessels without nationality or by those flying a flag unrecognized by the RFMO.

Domestic or foreign, artisanal or industrial vessels can commit IUU fishing anywhere from lakes and rivers to coastal states' exclusive economic zones (EEZs) - extending 200 nautical miles from their shorelines - and in international waters (the high seas). It occurs on both small and large scales - accidentally or out of opportunism by subsistence fishers or through coordinated efforts to profit from the violation of laws and regulations. IUU fishing is a low-risk, high-reward activity because it typically goes unnoticed, and the punishments are usually nonexistent or mild. However, it jeopardizes the health of the marine ecosystem and local communities.

Global losses due to illegal fishing are estimated to be up to $23.5 billion every year. Illegal fishing typically occurs in regions that pose less risk of being caught, such as Southeast Asia, but the sale of illicit catch extends worldwide. Studies show that upwards of 32 percent of U.S. seafood imports are caught illegally.

Listed below are five ways that IUU fishing threatens national security:

1. Facilitates transnational organized crime

IUU fishing vessels are often committing other severe crimes in conjunction with illegal fishing practices. According to INTERPOL, many large IUU fishing fleets participate in crimes such as money laundering, corruption, forgery, human trafficking, forced labor, and drug and weapons smuggling. Transnational criminals exploit poor fisheries governance to carry out nefarious activities at sea. These criminals can easily avoid detection and capture through legal loopholes, such as turning off their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) or changing their flag state, and through the help of complicit actors, including governments, port officials, and banks.

2. A hotbed for human rights abuses

Human trafficking occurs alongside other criminal activities, especially in natural resource-based sectors that depend on cheap or free labor, such as farming or fishing. Large-scale IUU fishing is linked to human trafficking and, once aboard, to modern slavery, human rights abuses, and severe violations of labor and safety standards.

As media attention has increased in the last decade, more human rights abuses have come to light (see this, this, and this). In 2015, the New York Times series 'Outlaw Ocean' detailed forced labor on IUU fishing vessels. Later that year, The Associated Press published the Pulitzer prize-winning investigation "Slaves may have caught the fish you bought," which exposed forced labor in the Southeast Asian fishing industry and led to the eventual release of more than 2,000 slaves. In the 2019 film these abuses are depicted by following a 14-year-old Cambodian boy who becomes a victim of human trafficking when he is enslaved on a Thai fishing trawler. The vast ocean landscape can be a lonely and isolating place, denying the victims of abuse the means to raise the alarm.

3. Fosters economic security threats

One of the main drivers of IUU fishing is over-capacity due to heavy fishing subsidies in many places. According to the FAO, there were 4.6 million fishing vessels globally in 2014, 75% of which belonged to the Chinese fishing fleet. Chinas' distant-water fishing fleet (DWF) is the largest in the world, with almost 17,000 vessels (1,000 of which use " flags of convenience" and are registered in other countries). Most of the Chinese fishing companies' net profits come entirely from subsidies. With less than 15 percent of the original fish biomass remaining in Chinese waters, China uses subsidies, especially fuel subsidies, to expand its DWF to far away, more productive waters. However, China is one of many countries that subsidize unsustainable fishing practices. The result of these subsidies is too many vessels trying to catch less and less fish, and legal fishers, artisanal and industrial, are pushed further towards IUU fishing in an attempt to stay lucrative.

IUU fishing further threatens coastal and developing countries' economies through lost or stolen revenue. Illicit vessels do not typically pay the associated fishing fees to the government or RFMO, whose resources are exploited. These losses extend beyond the direct payment from fish catch to income from post-harvest processing activities, which decrease with illegal transshipping. These losses are felt disproportionately by developing countries that rely more heavily on fish for GDP and subsistence livelihood. Furthermore, these countries do not have the funding or means to control and monitor illicit fishing activities, which allows the bad actors to take as they please.

4. Exacerbates environmental degradation

IUU fishing undermines any attempt at setting sustainable catch limits and marine reserve boundaries. As illicit fishing vessels avoid surveillance and enforcement, they often turn off their AIS and, in some cases, intentionally target marine reserves because the fish is more abundant within those 'protected' areas. The marine protected areas (MPAs) are almost meaningless unless backed up by strict monitoring and enforcement. IUU fishing also contributes to marine degradation through loss and damage of habitat, depletion of fish populations, modification of the food chain, and pollution resulting from overfishing and prohibited fishing gear. This destructive fishing also contributes to the incidental capture of protected, endangered, and threatened species such as turtles, sharks, albatrosses, and marine mammals. Further, IUU fishing will exacerbate the negative impacts of climate change on marine productivity, biodiversity, and ecosystem resilience.

5. Contributes to food insecurity

Climate change and IUU fishing will further degrade the marine ecosystem. In addition to climate change, the world population continues to grow, and demands for meat and seafood-based diets are increasing. Approximately 3 billion people globally rely on seafood as their primary source of protein. Climate change coupled with population growth and depleted fish populations threatens to diminish vital food supplies. The threat to food security goes hand in hand with the marginalization of coastal communities and subsistence fishers. Additionally, this threat of food insecurity underscores the disproportionate impact of IUU fishing on developing countries. Half the global catch, much of it taken from or near the waters of developing countries, is then turned into fishmeal to grow fish like salmon then sold and consumed in wealthier countries.

IUU fishing endangers food security, threatens livelihoods, degrades ecosystems, undermines the rule of law, is intertwined with transnational organized crime, and hurts economies. However, research on these threats to national security remains limited and fragmented. While there is growing awareness and attention on IUU fishing and maritime security issues, the groundwork for a cohesive cross-sectional response is lacking. IUU fishing is a complex issue involving many different actors and governments that requires an equally complex network of information sharing and international regulations to combat. Follow along with the American Security Project as we dive further into the threat multiplier of IUU fishing and propose actionable solutions to tackling illegal fishing in the U.S. and abroad.

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5 Ways IUU Fishing Threatens National Security

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U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Bryan JacksonAs of 2020, the U.S. Coast Guard declared Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing as the leading maritime security threat due to the expected deterioration of fragile coastal States and increased tension among foreign-fishing Nations, which, if left unchecked, would threaten geopolitical stability around the world.

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In an article from a source, I have never heard of states that the United States Secretary of State announced the launch of the Por la Pesca (For Fishing) Project, which will be used to support artisanal fishing, as well as to promote sustainable fishing in Peru and Ecuador. This is another example of the US to strengthen their goal of combating IUU fishing around the world.

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Empresa Peruana de Servicios Editoriales S. A. EDITORA PERÚ

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U.S. launches alliance to combat illegal fishing in Peru and Ecuador

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The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, on Friday announced the launch of the Por la Pesca (For Fishing) Project, which will be used to support artisanal fishing, as well as to promote sustainable f…

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ATUNA news posted this to their twitter account. I thought that this was interesting because it was the first thing that pooped up when I typed "IUU" into the search bar of twitter. This event is obviously significant news story that needs to be shared on all platforms.

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The US starts a project that combats IUU fishing and helps artisanal tuna fisheries in Ecuador and Peru. The Walton Family Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) funded the Por La Pesca project with...https://t.co/OSLOhgZp6Y @WaltonFamilyFdn @USAID

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US Aid For Ecuador’s & Peru’s Artisanal Tuna Fishers To Combat IUU | Pages| ATUNA

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Just about Tuna -Leading News website reporting about the global tuna industry for tuna professionals

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The US starts a project that combats IUU fishing and helps artisanal tuna fisheries in Ecuador and Peru. The Walton Family Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) funded the Por La Pesca project with...https://t.co/OSLOhgZp6Y @WaltonFamilyFdn @USAID https://t.co/P6hEdaOmjG

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The US starts a project that combats IUU fishing and helps artisanal tuna fisheries in Ecuador and Peru. The Walton Family Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) funded the Por La Pesca project with...https://t.co/OSLOhgZp6Y @WaltonFamilyFdn @USAID pic.twitter.com/P6hEdaOmjG
— ATUNA News (@AtunaNews) October 11, 2022

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US Aid For Ecuador’s & Peru’s Artisanal Tuna Fishers To Combat IUU | Pages| ATUNA

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Just about Tuna -Leading News website reporting about the global tuna industry for tuna professionals

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The US starts a project that combats IUU fishing and helps artisanal tuna fisheries in Ecuador and Peru. The Walton Family Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) funded the Por La Pesca project with...https://t.co/OSLOhgZp6Y @WaltonFamilyFdn @USAID https://t.co/P6hEdaOmjG

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
The US starts a project that combats IUU fishing and helps artisanal tuna fisheries in Ecuador and Peru. The Walton Family Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) funded the Por La Pesca project with...https://t.co/OSLOhgZp6Y @WaltonFamilyFdn @USAID https://t.co/P6hEdaOmjG

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The US starts a project that combats IUU fishing and helps artisanal tuna fisheries in Ecuador and Peru. The Walton Family Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) funded the Por La Pesca project with...https://t.co/OSLOhgZp6Y @WaltonFamilyFdn @USAID

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US Aid For Ecuador’s & Peru’s Artisanal Tuna Fishers To Combat IUU | Pages| ATUNA

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Just about Tuna -Leading News website reporting about the global tuna industry for tuna professionals

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The Day offers us cadets Local news for four years. The only thing relating to IUU fishing I could find was Kamala Harris's Commencement speech to the class of 2022. She stated that the Coast Guard will have an increase role in illegal fishing activities globally but specifically southeast Asia. I find this pretty amazing that this topic was brought up but definitely believe that it is necessary especially to the future leaders of the Coast Guard.

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New London - Vice President Kamala Harris addressed members of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy's Class of 2022 at their commencement Wednesday, talking about how they will lead in an "unsettled world" after four unusual years at the academy.

Graduates in their first year experienced the longest U.S. government shutdown in history and stepped up to help local Coast Guard members, in their second year were abruptly sent home at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in their fourth year saw the Russian invasion of Ukraine - the native country of one of their own.

And now they have graduated, with the nation's first female and first Black vice president as the keynote speaker for the academy's 141st commencement exercises.

"Your four-year cadet experience was unlike any other," Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz told the class of 252 graduates on Wednesday, a sunny and 70-degree day. He said the academy experience is taxing in normal times, between the rigorous academic programs and athletics.

Schultz is set to retire at the end of this month after a 39-year career in the Coast Guard, and his successor is Adm. Linda Fagan, who will be the first woman to lead an armed service.

Harris congratulated the cadets on completing a "remarkable journey." She flew in to Groton-New London Airport and walked onstage at Cadet Memorial Field about 11:15 a.m., after the graduating first-class cadets marched in.

Presidents and vice presidents rotate through the service academies' graduation ceremonies; President Joe Biden spoke at the academy last year and former Vice President Mike Pence was the keynote speaker in 2018.

"You will graduate into a world that's going to need your leadership, one that is full of possibility and the promise of progress," Harris told the graduates Wednesday. "At the same time, the world you graduate into is unsettled. It is a world where long-established principles now stand on shaky ground, where the rule of law in places is strained, where rules and norms are under question."

She talked about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and how she thinks we have taken the international rules-based order for granted far too often.

"Frankly, sometimes we forget how rare it is, in human history, to have a period of relative peace and stability among the nations," Harris said. "We must remember: upholding a system of laws, institutions and common understandings, this is how we secure the safety and security and prosperity of the United States, and this is how we preserve stability in the world."

This is where the cadets come in, the vice president said.

For example, she chaired a meeting in Washington, D.C., last week with nine leaders on Southeast Asia and "spoke with them about the United States Coast Guard, about you, with pride." Harris noted that the U.S. is sending additional Coast Guard personnel to the region to help build law enforcement capacity and launching new initiatives to cut down on illegal fishing.

But she said if the U.S. is to be strong abroad, it must be strong at home, and "every single American, in addition to you cadets, has a role to play in bettering our nation."

Harris said Wednesday was a joyous occasion but it was impossible to ignore the "horrific attack of hate" in Buffalo, N.Y., on Saturday. A white 18-year-old opened fire with a rifle at a supermarket, killing 10 people and wounding three others in what authorities described as "racially motived violent extremism." Harris called it another despicable attack in what she fears is an epidemic of hate.

But she looks at the cadets and sees "the very best of America," individuals who have entered as many but will leave as one, she said. And she noted they are uniquely suited to the task at hand, both growing up online and in the post-9/11 era, with threats from the climate crisis and the pandemic.

"You are familiar with a world that frankly feels strange and so new to so many of us," Harris said. "I believe you have the ability to see what can be unburdened by what has been, to learn from the past but not be limited by it, to identify new opportunities for our Coast Guard to lead both in today's unsettled world and far into the bright, beautiful future. We need your perspective and we need your expertise."
'Fortune favors the brave'
Among the Class of 2022, 39% are women and 36% are underrepresented minorities, with the largest number of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in academy history. The class includes 12 graduates from Connecticut, and nine from other countries: Cambodia, Iceland, Jordan, Mexico, Madagascar, Palau, Panama, Rwanda and Ukraine.

Anton Kononuchenko from Ukraine got particularly loud applause as Superintendent Rear Adm. William Kelly read the names of cadets from other countries, and a standing ovation when walking across the stage to accept his degree.

"We stand with you, Anton," Kelly said.

After the ceremony, Kononuchenko told reporters he is flying back to Ukraine on Thursday, and his shoulder boards will be waiting for him in Kyiv. He will be commissioned into the Ukrainian military.

"It is a new chapter of my life, and I'm ready to walk into it and do my best," he said. He said the Coast Guard Academy cadets are all his family, and the support he's gotten warmed his heart.

Asked if his family is safe, Kononuchenko replied, "More or less. I guess no one's safe in Ukraine right now, but they're alive."

Distinguished Graduate Logan Tobias, the graduate with the highest grade point average, said in his speech, "Continue to be brave, Anton. Fortune will favor you soon enough." Tobias was referencing the class motto, "Fortune favors the brave," which Kelly also talked about.

"If you are brave enough to do right by your people, if you care for them, if you prepare them, if you set high expectations for them, and if you challenge them to be great," Kelly said, "then fortune will most certainly favor the brave, and your unit, the Coast Guard and our nation will be most certainly be stronger for it."

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told the graduates, "Each of you has the opportunity, and in the fact the responsibility, to build a better Coast Guard." He added, "you will lead with honor, and honor will be the reward for what you give."

The Class of 2022 is the first graduating class with officers from the cyber systems major, which was created in 2018.

As graduates took the oath of office, they were commissioned as Coast Guard officers, transitioning from cadets to ensigns. Most cadets are going to cutters, while some are headed to a Coast Guard sector or to flight school.
From growing up at the academy to graduating from it
Waterford native and Marine Science Magnet High School alumna Olivia Gonzalez is headed to the Pensacola-based Coast Guard cutter Dauntless, which does migrant and drug interdiction missions.

Gonzalez said she pretty much grew up on campus: Her father is Coast Guard Academy English professor Jose Gonzalez, who immigrated from El Salvador to New London at age 8.

Olivia Gonzalez said when she was growing up, her family sponsored Honduran cadets at their house, and seeing the kindness of cadets and the family atmosphere, "I knew I wanted to be a part of that." In her time at the academy, she was involved in Compañeros, an affinity group with a focus on Latino culture; a member of the diversity peer educator program; and part of the crew team.

Graduates were allowed 10 guests each this year, compared to four last year. That meant that Merrill Cline of Ohio had the support of both parents, two grandparents, two aunts, an uncle and a sister in the bleachers.

Kristin Cline said her daughter grew up sailing and only applied to the Coast Guard Academy; she knew once she visited this was where she wanted to come.

Fitzgerald Johnson said his daughter, Serheni'te Johnson, has an Army dad and Air Force mom but is the first person in the family to go into the Coast Guard. He said she always wanted to be an engineer growing up, and had gotten involved in robotics and was a junior member of the National Society of Black Engineers.

At the academy, Johnson majored in mechanical engineering, played rugby and, for her senior project, designed an emergency evacuation system for boats.

"We're proud of her in so many different ways," Fitzgerald Johnson said.
e.moser@theday.com
Coast Guard Academy graduation photo gallery

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Vice President Kamala Harris tells Coast Guard Academy graduates their importance in 'unsettled world'

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New London - Vice President Kamala Harris addressed members of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy's Class of 2022 at their commencement Wednesday, talking about how they will lead in an "unsettled world" after four unusual years at the academy. Graduates in their first year experienced the longest U.S.

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The fleet of Chinese fishing boats are larger than the Ecuador Navy who is feared by their numbers. The United States Coast Guard has sent down a boat to do some surveillance. These boats have become a problem because they are setting up right along the Exclusive Economic Zone which is catastrophic to the environment. Fish do not have rules or borders on where they can live or swim. When there are this many boats in one particular area problems arise. This is really scary to see.

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When a vast Chinese armada appeared outside the Galapagos Marine Reserve in South America earlier this year, Ecuador's Government sounded the alarm.

China hauls in 15.2 million tonnes of marine life annually, or 20 per cent of the world's catch

Beijing has also flouted sanctions by sending mariners to fish in North Korean waters

But experts caution that all countries are guilty of plundering marine resources

They called in the big guns, asking the United States Coast Guard to help keep an eye on the enormous number of fishing vessels.

The sheer size of the fleet fuelled Ecuador's urgency: more than 350 Chinese fishing boats were detected, outnumbering its own navy and those of Peru and Chile combined.

Lieutenant-Commander Kristen Caldwell of the US Coast Guard, which sent a vessel down to the region to provide surveillance on the fleet, said the magnitude of fishing activity was unprecedented.

The flotilla was plundering waters that are among the most biodiverse in the world: the Galapagos Marine Reserveis home to the greatest biomass of sharks on the planet.

Satellite tracking data showed the boats forming a near-perfect line along the boundary of Ecuador's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) - however the US Coast guard did not detect any of the Chinese boats cross over into Ecuadorian waters.

"The issue is that fish don't know borders," Lieutenant-Commander Caldwell told the ABC.

Fishing in international waters is not illegal, even if those waters sit right beside areas of great ecological importance.

And that's the real catch: even with a veneer of legality, these activities are potentially catastrophic for the environment and for local fish stocks.

Armed with huge Chinese Government subsidies, this massive fleet is now being deployed across nearly every ocean of the world - including on Australia's doorstep, with a new planned Chinese-funded fisheries development near Papua New Guinea's Daru Island, which lies in the Torres Strait.

China a fisheries superpower

Keeping the industry strong has been a priority for China's central government: in 2013, President Xi Jinping urged Chinese mariners to "build bigger ships and venture even farther and catch bigger fish".

Beijing says its distant water fishing fleet numbers around 2,500 ships, but one study claimed it could have as many as 17,000 boats trawling the world's oceans. The US, by comparison, has just 300 distant water vessels.

China is a fisheries superpower: according to the UN, it consumes around 36 per cent of total global fish production, and hauls in 15.2 million tonnes of marine life a year, or 20 per cent of the world's entire annual catch.

Its fleets, including those in the Galapagos, are vast and complex.

There are trawlers, refuelling ships, freezer and transport vessels that allow them to continue operating without going to port for months at a time, sometimes longer.

Ian Urbina, the author of Outlaw Ocean, has spent years writing about fishing on the high seas and says while illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing) was an issue worldwide, China is unique.

"More than any other fishing fleet in the world, [China] travels farther, stays at sea longer, pulls up more fish than anyone, and is also more routinely invading national waters," he said.

It's unsurprising then that China ranks number one on the IUU fishing index.

The fleet is routinely found to be violating the law, targeting endangered shark species, falsifying licenses and documentation, as well as committing human rights abuses onboard its vessels.

And while United Nations maritime law mandates that fishing vessels are required to use a transponder to transmit their location at all times, Mr Urbina said many vessels deliberately switched them off.

"Some of them are going dark for short periods, and what they're doing in those periods is unknown."

This year's flotilla was the biggest, but Chinese trawlers had been fishing in those waters for years.

In 2017, the Chinese refrigeration vessel Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999 was pursued and boarded by Ecuadorian authorities inside the Galapagos Marine Reserve.

On board, they found a gruesome haul: 6,000 frozen shark carcasses, many of endangered species, were seized.

Shark fins are a delicacy and a lucrative trade in Asia, but fishing for them and removing their fins is illegal in many jurisdictions, including Ecuador.

Fishing ships have even been deployed in the contested South China Sea - although fishing does not appear to be the core objective there.

"The Chinese are using their fishing fleet to assert their presence in the South China Sea," said Tabitha Grace Mallory, an expert on China's fishing policies at the University of Washington.

"In some cases [their] fishing vessels aren't even fishing, they're likely to be maritime militia vessels, which are getting paid to just assert some kind of presence in the area."

'The laws are not working'

In West Africa, Chinese companies have opened up a new front for marine exploitation.

Cash-strapped governments are selling their fishing rights to overseas companies, but due to those same economic challenges, officials are mostly unable to ensure the fishing going on is legal.

Nowhere is this problem more acute than in the small coastal nation of Ghana.

Ghanaian law requires that all trawlers operating in its waters are owned by Ghanaians, but right now there are more than 100 Chinese trawlers plundering waters normally fished by local boats.

"We have all the laws, honestly I still can't understand why the laws are not working," Nana Jojo Solomon of the Ghana Fisherman Council told the ABC.

"[The trawlers] all have Chinese names, they are Chinese vessels - if they are Ghanaian vessels, why don't they have Ghanaian names on them?"

Max Schmid, Deputy Director of the Environmental Justice Foundation, works closely with West African governments looking to tackle illegal fishing.

He said Chinese companies were finding ways to get around Ghana's laws, which are supposed to protect local fishermen.

"Chinese companies are using small Ghanaian front companies with only a handful of employees and very little capital," he said.

"Our research suggests they're Chinese trawlers, with Chinese captains."

Mr Schmid said one trawler can land up to 26 tonnes of fish in a day, the equivalent of what 400 local canoes could haul.

The damage China's boats are causing is staggering: the income for artisanal fishermen in Ghana - people who rely on fishing for subsistence and local trade - has nearly halved since the turn of the century, according to Mr Solomon.

"Scientists have predicted that if we allow these vessels to continue to fish the way they are, come the end of this year, there will be a complete decline of artisanal fishing," he said.

Bankrolling North Korea's regime

For years, the morbid phenomenon of North Korean "ghost ships" washing up on the west coast of Japan has provoked fascination and concern.

Small, ill-equipped fishing boats have been landing on shores empty, or carrying the bodies of North Korean sailors.

The exact reason why so many ships were adrift was unclear. One explanation was an increase in fish quotas set by Kim Jong-un's regime, in response to tightened international sanctions.

But a discovery made this year by a team of researchers has shone new light on what might be happening out at sea.

Quentin Hanich from the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security at the University of Wollongong was part of that team.

"The South Korean Coast Guard started reporting large numbers of Chinese fishing vessels transiting through their waters on the way up to North Korea," he said.

The team used a combination of satellite and tracking data to get a lock on what was going on - and what they found was astonishing.

"Approximately 900 fishing boats originating from China were transiting through South Korean waters into North Korea, and were engaging in large-scale industrial fishing," Dr Hanich said.

This was in open defiance of United Nations sanctions against North Korea, which prohibit the selling of fishing licenses to overseas buyers - but Dr Hanich and his team confirmed they were still for sale on Chinese-language websites.

"This basically provides millions of dollars of revenue and hard currency to the North Korean regime - and the Chinese Government, I am guessing, is just basically turning a blind eye to it," he said.

In the process, small-scale fishermen in North Korea were likely finding it much harder to get fish, and were needing to sail farther afield for their catches - hence the appearance of "ghost ships" along Japan's coast.

Dr Hanich's team also identified nearly 3,000 North Korean boats illegally fishing in Russian waters across 2017 and 2018.

"[The Chinese fishing boats] are effectively displacing all the small scale North Korean artisanal fishermen who can't compete," he said.

'Rules are only as good as their enforcement'

China insists it is working to ensure its fishing fleets are acting sustainably and legally.

The ABC requested comment from China's Ministry of Agriculture, which is responsible for fisheries, but did not receive a reply.

China announced a partial moratorium on squid fishing around South America this year, and Beijing's 2020 white paper on offshore fisheries indicates China is serious about dealing with rogue companies.

However reeling in China's distant water fleets will require a cohesive international strategy on managing marine resources.

According to Mr Urbina, the high seas are often near lawless and rife with brazen criminality when it comes to fishing, and not just from China.

"Rules are only as good as their enforcement, and the enforcement mechanism for what anaemic and murky rules do exist is really poor," he said.

Experts say there is also a risk of nations acting in their own self-interest by plundering the ocean unsustainably.

"The European Union is overfishing Yellowfin in the Indian Ocean to unsustainable levels - the United States has a fleet of purse seiners that, year in year out, exceed their high seas fishing limits," Dr Hanich said.

In Ecuador, China's flotilla of factory ships have now moved on.

When asked what might happen next year, WWF Ecuador's fisheries director Pablo Guerrero laughed.

"There's 1.4 billion people in China, they need to provide food for growing a population - so what is the alternative," he said.

"They will be back. For sure they will be back."

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'They will be back': How China's 'dark' fleets are plundering the world's oceans

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When a vast Chinese armada appeared outside the Galapagos Marine Reserve in South America earlier this year, Ecuador's Government sounded the alarm.

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China vessels were seen using large illegal nets to catch already overfished tuna in the Indian Ocean. What was interesting is that Satellites have picked up these vessels before doing the same thing in the parts of the world's oceans. I believe this article proves how unregulated fishing is and how necessary it is to stop these vessels. If we have evidence that is enough to take action against these illegal activities and it must force the US to ask ourselves, are we doing everything we can? If the answer is no, then we must start.

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By JOSHUA GOODMAN, Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) - Chinese squid vessels were documented using wide nets to illegally catch already overfished tuna as part of a surge in unregulated activity in the Indian Ocean, according to a new report by Norway-based watchdog group that highlights growing concerns about the lack of international cooperation to protect marine species on the high seas.

The report, published Wednesday by Trygg Mat Tracking, found that the number of squid vessels in the high seas of the Indian Ocean - where fishing of the species is not regulated - has exploded six-fold since 2016.

The vast majority of the vessels sailing in the high seas off the coast of Oman and Yemen were flagged to China, whose overseas fleet, the world's largest, has been dogged by accusations of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing around the world.

Behind the surge is a lack of oversight and decades of overfishing that has pushed China's overseas fleet - officially capped at 3,000 vessels but possibly consisting of thousands more - ever farther from home.

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Unlike in other parts of the high seas, where countries come together to jointly manage fishing grounds beyond any country's territorial waters, there's no such organization regulating the squid caught in the Indian Ocean.

TMT, relying on ship tracking data and an at-sea survey by Greenpeace International, found that all of the squid vessels were fishing with large nets - a practice considered far more harmful than using lures known as jigs because it generates bycatch of non-targeted species.

Among the other fish tangled in the vessels' nets and spotted on board by drones were large species of tuna - a slow-maturing, top predator whose disappearance can indicate a dying ocean. None of the 341 vessels detected operating in the area this season was authorized to fish for tuna by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, or IOTC, which regulates the catch on the international waters.

Adding to the concerns, TMT said five vessels active in the area later called into a port in Pakistan with 30 metric tons of skipjack and yellowfin tuna, whose population the IOTC is trying to rebuild after years of overfishing.

Another indication of illegal fishing: a significant number of vessels were sailing 'dark,' with their mandatory tracking device that gives a ship's position either switched off, transmitting intermittently, or providing false identifiers.

Some of the same Chinese vessels highlighted by TMT had a history of illegal activity in other parts of the world and were spotted on satellite drifting close to the boundaries of Oman and Yemen, where they did not have permission to fish.

They are also known to fish for squid in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of South America, where The Associated Press this summer observed similar tracking device discrepancies.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Chinese Boats Spotted Illegally Hauling Tuna in Indian Ocean

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MIAMI (AP) - Chinese squid vessels were documented using wide nets to illegally catch already overfished tuna as part of a surge in unregulated activity in the Indian Ocean, according to a new report by Norway-based watchdog group that highlights growing concerns about the lack of international cooperation to protect marine species on the high seas.

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A study by a few different groups have analyzed how Chinese Deep water fishing fleet significantly affects the environment and socioeconomic activity in the world.  China has the world's Largest DWF with 17000 vessels and this study has resulted in finding criminal activities within that fleet related to corruption, piracy, and narcotrafficking, as well as others. What I find the most interesting is that IUU fishing has affected and probably broken major labor laws that exists. This article states there are credible sources of reports of abuse and trafficking of crew members.

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BY Andréa Barretto/Diálogo

" Illegal, unreported, and unregulated [ IUU ] fishing poses a potentially enduring threat to the security and well-being of the United States and its neighbors in Latin America and the Caribbean, " the August report IUU Fishing Crimes in Latin America and the Caribbean of the Center for Latin American & Latino Studies (CLALS) at American University in Washington, D , C . , and investigative journalism organization InSight Crime , indicated .

According to the report, which a nalyz ed the problem in nine countries of the region (Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, Jamaica, Panama, Suriname, and Uruguay), China is among the major IUU fishing violators in these countries , with fishing vessels present both within the ir territorial waters , as well as the outer limits and within their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

" China ' s distant water fishing [ DWF ] is believed to significantly affect the environment and have a strong socio-economic impact on developing countries, " Miren Gutiérrez, a research associate at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), an international think tank based in London, told Diálogo .

China, said Gutiérrez , has the world ' s largest DWF fleet, with nearly 17,000 vessels, according to ODI ' s 2020 survey, and added that this overcapacity implies a significant ecological export risk to developing countr ies' territorial waters, despite increased regulation s and restrictions world wide . " While the fishing boom has benefited China, Chinese consumers , and Chinese companies, most of the social, environmental , and economic costs are borne by coastal developing states, which do not share equally in the benefits, " Gutiérrez said.

H undreds of Chinese vessels operate in Latin America ' s oceans year-round and have long been accused of plundering two main fishing grounds - the waters near Argentina in the South Atlantic and those near Chile, Peru , and Ecuador in the South Pacific, InSight Crime says. The number of Chinese vessels that plunder the waters off the coast of Latin America can be anywhere from 300 to more than 700, several international news media and organizations indicated.

Countries in the region have been mobilizing to combat IUU fishing. In early September for example, U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers of the 7th Bomb Wing supported the governments of Ecuador and Panama in operations against IUU fishing to detect illegal Chinese fishing boat s and deter malign C hinese activi ti es, military platform the War Zone reported .

The criminal practice is associated with several other offenses, such as slave labor, narco trafficking, piracy, corruption, and marine pollution. The negative impact also falls on the economy of the affected countries, with losses reaching $2.3 billion annually , highlights the CLALS report .

In addition to turning their Automatic Identification System off , Chinese fishing vessels also display the flag of another country, known as flag of convenience, to attempt to circumvent inspections and the law in general. " The ownership and operational management of the Chinese DWF fleet is complex and opaque. Vessel ownership is highly fragmented among many small companies, and registration is done in different jurisdictions, " Gutiérrez said .

A major concern " is the treatment of crew members on board foreign ships near the EEZ [of countries of the region], especially those flying the Chinese flag. Although captains and officers of these ships are Chinese, there are credible reports of abuse and trafficking of crew members, " the report indicates .

" China has not adhered to a number of relevant international agreements and does not require high standards from its registered vessels ," Gutiérrez said .

In early April, U.S. Army General Laura J. Richardson, commander of U.S. Southern Command, urged countries of the region to intensify their crackdown on IUU fishing and halt Chinese expansion , the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an international journalistic investigation organization that specializes in organized crime, reported . "These cross-cutting threats are too powerful, too overwhelming for one nation to handle on its own," Gen. Richardson said, adding that responding to them requires working together.

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Chinese Fishing Fleet Threatens Marine Biodiversity in Latin America and the Caribbean

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"Illegal, unreported, and unregulated [IUU] fishing poses a potentially enduring threat to the security and well-being of the United States and its neighbors in Latin America and the Caribbean," the August report IUU Fishing Crimes in Latin America and the Caribbean of the Center for Latin American & Latino Studies (CLALS) at American University in Washington, D,C., and investigative journalism organization InSight Crime, indicated.

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This articles states how illegal seafood is still reaching the plates of the EU citizens due to weak controls and insignificant fines in some member states. What is interesting to note and something I did not know was that the European Union was the world's largest importer of fish products. There initiatives and checks of IUU fishing were done and found evidence of it but not enough has been done. This article calls for the European Union to reinforce their control system.

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Weak controls failing to stop illegal seafood landing on EU plates, investigation shows

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EU financial watchdog blames small fines and feeble controls in some states for amount of illegal seafood

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This nonprofit organization Oceana has published a report to the President of the United States to expand transparency and traceability to end illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and seafood fraud. The seafood industry is huge, and this report is a call to protect fishermen, their businesses, consumers and even the Ocean. This report details much evidence of fraud and lack of traceability causing the War of IUU to continue to grow. Action is needed to account for where these fish are being imported. Is it safe seafood? Legal? These are the questions we need answers too and traceability through other means than SIMP is necessary.

I really wanted to add this because clicking on the underline "Source" link it led me to so many more interesting articles on IUU fishing. I really like and support Oceana because of the evidence they show in each of these articles.

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Washington, DC, March 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Oceana published a report making the case for expanding transparency and traceability to end illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and seafood fraud. While the federal government has taken some steps to combat these problems in the past, Oceana says more must be done to ensure that U.S. dollars are not supporting these illicit activities at sea, which can impact the economy, environment and human rights.

"Americans have a right to know more about the seafood they eat and should have confidence that their dollars are not supporting the pillaging of the oceans or human rights abuses at sea," said Beth Lowell, Oceana's deputy vice president for U.S. campaigns. "All seafood sold in the U.S. should be safe, legally caught, responsibly sourced and honestly labeled. Until then, honest fishermen, seafood businesses, consumers and the oceans will pay the price."

According to Oceana, IUU fishing poses one of the greatest threats to our oceans. IUU fishing costs the global seafood industry as much as $26 billion to $50 billion annually. In the United States, up to 90% of the fish consumed is imported, with up to 32% of wild-caught seafood imports being products of illegal or unreported fishing. IUU fishing can include fishing without authorization, ignoring catch limits, operating in closed areas, targeting protected wildlife and fishing with prohibited gear. These illicit activities can destroy essential habitats, severely deplete fish populations and threaten global food security. These actions not only contribute to overfishing, but also give illegal fishermen an unfair advantage over those that play by the rules.

IUU fishing is a low-risk, high-reward activity, especially on the high seas where a fragmented legal framework and lack of effective enforcement allow it to thrive. In 2016, the U.S. government established the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP), requiring catch documentation and traceability for some seafood at risk of illegal fishing and seafood fraud. SIMP currently only applies to 13 types of imported seafood and only traces them from the boat to the U.S. border. In 2019, Oceana released the results of a seafood fraud investigation, testing popular seafood not covered by SIMP, and found that 1 in every 5 fish tested nationwide was mislabeled, demonstrating that seafood fraud is still a problem in the United States. Seafood fraud ultimately hurts honest fishermen and seafood businesses that play by the rules, masks conservation and health risks of certain species, and cheats consumers who fall victim to a bait-and-switch.

"The Biden-Harris administration has an opportunity to lead in the fight against illegal fishing and seafood fraud, leveling the playing field for American fishermen and seafood businesses, while protecting consumers and the oceans," Lowell said. "The United States must take decisive action to combat IUU fishing and close the U.S. market to all illegally sourced products, including seafood caught using forced labor or other human rights abuses. The United States can be a leader in traceability of seafood and transparency at sea."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently considering a proposed rule that would require traceability for some foods, including most seafood, throughout the full supply chain. "Oceana supports the FDA requiring traceability for seafood and suggests that the rule be expanded to include all seafood; align with SIMP; require electronic recordkeeping and reporting; and provide consumers with more information about the seafood they eat, like what fish it is, where it was caught, how it was caught or if it was farmed," Lowell said.

"To effectively fight IUU fishing on a global scale, there must be expanded transparency of the commercial fishing industry," said Dr. Marla Valentine, Oceana's illegal fishing and transparency analyst. "U.S. requirements to carry automatic identification system (AIS) devices, which bolster transparency at sea, currently fall short. Oceana determined that 85% of the U.S. fishing fleet - nearly 15,000 commercial fishing vessels - are not required to use AIS, as current regulations only apply to vessels longer than 65 feet. The U.S. should expand transparency requirements to vessels 49 feet and above. Before demanding transparency elsewhere, the U.S. must embrace transparency at home."

In January 2021, Oceana released the results of a nationwide poll finding that Americans overwhelmingly support policies to end illegal fishing and seafood fraud. Included among the key findings, 89% of voters agree that imported seafood should be held to the same standards as U.S. caught seafood. Additionally, 81% of voters say they support policies that prevent seafood from being sold in the U.S. that was caught using human trafficking and slave labor. Eighty-three percent of voters agree that all seafood should be traceable from the fishing boat to the dinner plate, and 77% support requirements for all fishing vessels to be publicly trackable. The findings show widespread bipartisan support for policies aimed at increasing transparency and seafood traceability.

Oceana is campaigning to stop illegal fishing, increase transparency at sea and require traceability of all seafood to ensure all seafood is safe, legally caught, responsibly sourced and honestly labeled.

Read the full report here.

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Oceana is the largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Oceana is rebuilding abundant and biodiverse oceans by winning science-based policies in countries that control one-third of the world's wild fish catch. With more than 225 victories that stop overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution, and the killing of threatened species like turtles and sharks, Oceana's campaigns are delivering results. A restored ocean means that 1 billion people can enjoy a healthy seafood meal, every day, forever. Together, we can save the oceans and help feed the world. Visit USA.Oceana.org to learn more.

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Oceana Calls for U.S. Action to End Illegal Fishing & Seafood Fraud

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Washington, DC, March 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Oceana published a report making the case for expanding transparency and traceability to end illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and seafood fraud. While the federal government has taken some steps to combat these problems in the past, Oceana says more must be done to ensure that U.S.