Industrial high-tech fleets are emptying our oceans.

Industrial fishing is a multinational, multibillion-dollar industry, which has been depleting fish populations worldwide for decades, driving many marine species towards extinction.

It is estimated that the fishing industry kills between 1 and 2.7 trillion fish from the wild every year. The reason why industrial fishing vessels can catch these huge amounts of fish is their size and their technical equipment.

Global overfishing one of the most pressing sustainability issues of our time.

Everywhere on this planet floating factories are emptying our oceans at an increasing rate.  90% of the global fish stocks are believed to be fully used or overfished, severely threatening the sustainability of the marine environment and the world’s largest food resource.

Despite this overexploitation of our seas, the EU is still the world’s primary importer of fish. Today, each person eats on average 19.2 kg of fish a year, that’s almost twice as much as what we ate 50 years ago. Our oceans simply cannot withstand this level of exploitation.

(image source: U.S. Coast Guard)

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is a serious threat to marine ecosystems and legitimate fishermen.

It is estimated that between 20 and 50% of all seafood worldwide is either illegally caught, mislabeled, never reported, or from a fishery without a management regime. This translates into 800 kilos of illegal fish extracted from the ocean every second, a staggering quantity!

Low priority given to IUU fishing by enforcements is an enticing factor for associated activities, because it’s low risk, but high return. Far from constituting a harmless lack of compliance with regulations, IUU fishing destroys marine ecosystems, threatens food security, harms legitimate fishers and damages the economy and state governance.