Transshipment is the transfer of goods, fish and other marine life between fishing vessels at sea or in port, and it has existed for centuries all over the world’s oceans. [1] [2] The practice is considered legal and desirable by industrial fisheries because it enables the delivery of fish to processing plants quickly, while also allowing fishing vessels to continue operating at sea for months and years at a time, without making port calls and, ostensibly, reducing costs.[3] [4] [5]
However, high seas transshipment, when practiced by unscrupulous fishing vessel operators, enables human exploitation and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.[6] Because transshipment on the high seas takes place outside state jurisdiction, vessel operators can obscure, manipulate, or falsify data on their fishing practices, retained species, catch levels, catch locations, and what was transferred to the receiving vessel.[7] This significantly contributes to overfishing, weakens fishery management, and undermines local fisheries. Further, higher IUU fishing risks and labor abuse have been linked to fishing operations that rely on high seas transshipment.[8]
Longline fishing vessels—which comprise a majority of industrial fishing fleets and use extended lines which hold thousands of hooks that stretch for miles—are particularly dangerous for sharks that are caught as bycatch*, entangled, or suffer fatal injuries from hooks.[9] Pelagic sharks* are a common bycatch species on longline vessels as they have frequent interactions with fishing gear and fisheries. [10] Their populations, along with ray populations, have decreased by 71% over the past 50 years primarily due to overfishing.[11] Transshipment plays a role in their population decrease because it enables obfuscation and misreporting of catch and bycatch by nefarious vessel operators, which undermines shark conservation and fisheries management efforts.
A Conservation and Management Measure on the Regulation of Transshipment provides governing rules for transshipment in the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) management area that includes an explicit prohibition for high seas transshipment, but it carves out an exception for vessels to allow high seas transshipment if “it is impracticable for certain vessels” to operate without transshipping. [12] This allowance has resulted in the exception becoming the norm, as transshipment has become an increasing, rather than an intended decreasing, practice in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean over time.[13]
Sharks Pacific, however, is actively advocating for a full ban on high seas transshipment, with the aim of improving transparency and oversight as industrial fishing vessels transship in exclusive economic zones or in ports. Sharks Pacific seeks to raise awareness of high seas transshipment and is also supporting research on related issues such as the economic impact of high seas transshipment on Pacific Island countries and territories. To that end, although transshipment may seem like a distant water behemoth to consumers like you and I, as individuals we can help advance these reforms by checking for Marine Stewardship Council and Monterey Bay Seafood Watch certified fish; writing to our local grocery stores or favorite restaurants asking where the fish was caught; and buying from local fisherman.
*Bycatch: Commercial fishing catch that consists of marine animals caught unintentionally
*Pelagic Shark: Also referred to as oceanic sharks, live in the open waters of seas and oceans. They inhabit tropical and temperate waters, and many are migratory. Pelagic sharks are constantly on the move and rely on lift from their pectoral fins and buoyancy from the low-density oils in their large livers to stop them from sinking.[14]
[1] Oceana: No More Hiding at Sea: Transshipping Exposed
[2] Oceana: No More Hiding at Sea: Transshipping Exposed
[3] Transshipment in the Western and Central Pacific | The Pew Charitable Trusts
[4] Transshipment in the Western and Central Pacific | The Pew Charitable Trusts
[5] Oceana: No More Hiding at Sea: Transshipping Exposed
[6] Potential ecological and social benefits of a moratorium on transshipment on the high seas – ScienceDirect
[7] Transshipment in the Western and Central Pacific | The Pew Charitable Trusts
[8] Revealing global risks of labor abuse and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing | Nature Communications
[9] Fishing Hooks Pose a Long-Term Threat to Tiger Sharks
[10] Fishing Hooks Pose a Long-Term Threat to Tiger Sharks
[11] End of the Line: Oceanic sharks and rays in 50-year decline — Marine Megafauna Foundation
[12] CMM 2009-06 – Conservation and Management Measure on the Regulation of Transhipment | Monitoring and Evaluation
[13] Transshipment in the Western and Central Pacific | The Pew Charitable Trusts
[14] WWF Sharks | Sharks and Rays | Shark Facts
