Krizia Matthews
At F.A.O. meeting, Global Fishing Watch Pushes Transparency of Vessel Ownership to Combat Illegal Fishing
- Published
As fisheries talks begin in Reykjavík, Iceland, one message must be clear: vessel tracking alone cannot reveal who profits from global fishing
- Identifying ultimate beneficial owners is essential to holding accountable those responsible for illegal fishing.
- Combining ownership data with tracking tools allows authorities to uncover complex corporate shells and hidden networks used to launder illegal catches into the $141 billion global seafood market.
- Global policy must move beyond voluntary transparency by embedding mandatory Ultimate Beneficial Owner disclosure into vessel registration and international fisheries management frameworks.
The global fishing industry generates an estimated $141 billion each year. But without transparency over who ultimately owns and controls fishing vessels, the sector remains vulnerable to abuse.
While technological advances such as the Global Fishing Watch map have made vessel activity increasingly visible, providing detailed information on flag States, gear types and vessel identification, identifying the ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) — the individuals or corporate entities who ultimately profit from a vessel’s activities — remains a significant challenge.
Complex corporate arrangements, shifting registrations and offshore entities can obscure the individuals who profit — preventing accountability and enabling illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing to persist.
Closing this transparency gap must be a central priority in fisheries management.
Now, as delegates gather for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (F.A.O.) Sub-Committee on Fisheries Management, in Reykjavík, Iceland, to set the direction for the future of global fisheries management, Krizia Matthews is pushing to ensure UBO remains at the center of the policy conversation. We spoke with her ahead of the meeting about mainstreaming UBO policies and the growing role of transparency and technology in tackling IUU fishing.
How does disclosing UBO information work with vessel tracking data to strengthen fisheries governance?
Vessel tracking systems such as automatic identification systems (AIS) and vessel monitoring systems (VMS) show where vessels operate, while ultimate beneficial ownership reveals who really controls and benefits from those activities. Together, they link operations at sea with accountability on land — and increasingly, they’re exposing how illegal activity unfolds in both places.
IUU fishing isn’t just about what happens on the ocean. Falsified catch documentation, forged licenses and manipulated vessel registries allow illegal operators to launder their catch through legitimate supply chains, obscuring their activities long before and after a vessel ever leaves port. When authorities know who ultimately owns and controls the vessels, companies and related assets — and who benefits from them — they can connect these dots.
Transparency of UBO information along with vessel tracking can reveal hidden links between vessels. It enables authorities to identify repeat offenders, uncover hidden ownership obscured by complex corporate structures and link IUU fishing activities across fleets, flags and jurisdictions, whether the violations occur at sea or on land.
Connecting the Dots in Ecuador: When Vessel Tracking and UBO Transparency Come Together
On Aug. 13, 2017, Ecuadorian authorities detained the refrigerated cargo vessel FU YUAN YU LENG 999 in the Galápagos Islands carrying more than 300 tonnes of catch, including approximately 6,600 sharks, among them CITES-protected hammerheads. Analysis by C4ADS and Global Fishing Watch linked the vessel to multiple fishing boats operating in the area. AIS data showed the FU YUAN YU LENG 999 met with four fishing vessels between Aug.5-6, shortly before its detention.
By combining vessel tracking with ultimate beneficial ownership analysis, investigators were able to trace responsibility beyond the vessel itself. The findings contributed to sanctions against the legal beneficial owner and several ultimate beneficial owners, as well as the company’s delisting from the U.S. stock exchange — underscoring how transparency can drive accountability.
Analysis of FU YUAN YU LENG 999’s activities through Windward’s maritime domain awareness platform.
At the same time, UBO transparency strengthens national vessel registries. When submitted to the F.A.O. Global Record of Fishing Vessels, Refrigerated Transport Vessels and Supply Vessels, UBO data improves accuracy, consistency and national verification processes.
UBO integration in data registries improves risk analysis, compliance monitoring and international cooperation. It transforms registries from administrative checkboxes into enforcement assets — helping authorities spot red flags even before vessels weigh anchor.
Why are satellite-based vessel tracking technologies like AIS becoming increasingly important for fisheries management, especially in data-poor and capacity-constrained contexts?
Satellite-based vessel tracking technologies are critical for fisheries monitoring and management because of their ability to provide independent and near-real time visibility of vessel activity. This is especially important for data-poor and capacity-constrained contexts where onboard observers, patrols and the use of other traditional monitoring tools is limited or non-existent. In many cases, access to vessel tracking data remains restricted, poorly shared across authorities or slow in verification processes, creating enforcement gaps that can be exploited by unscrupulous operators and other bad actors.
These data gaps underscore the growing need for a global mandate on vessel tracking. Without uniform and mandatory requirements in place, some fishing fleets continue to operate outside VMS obligations and across exclusive economic zones, regional fisheries management organization areas and the high seas, resulting in fragmented and uneven vessel tracking regimes. The result is an uneven playing field that burdens compliant operators while allowing bad actors to slip through the cracks.
This is where AIS proves transformative. AIS offers an open and complementary source of vessel tracking information that supports long-term monitoring of vessel behavior and enables verification of reported positions. When combined with other datasets — such as authorizations, fishing effort and catch data — AIS becomes a powerful tool for compliance monitoring, particularly when VMS data are unavailable or inaccessible.
How does Global Fishing Watch and its unique array of technologies and tools support countries in their efforts to adopt and implement ultimate beneficial ownership transparency?
Global Fishing Watch turns ownership transparency into a practical enforcement tool for countries by combining UBO information with satellite-based vessel tracking and vessel history analysis. By consolidating vessel identity, activity history, authorizations, flag changes and ownership data from multiple public sources, we help authorities identify data gaps and assess risk more effectively.
This work is strengthened through partnerships with organizations such as C4ADS, which provides in-depth analysis of complex ownership structures through tools like Triton, a database focused on uncovering ultimate beneficial ownership. Together, these complementary capabilities help expose hidden ownership networks and support more targeted enforcement and accountability.
This integrated approach is especially important in the context of authorities who lack resources as it empowers them to focus their limited resources on the vessels and operators that pose the highest risk instead of piecing together fragmented information. From licensing due diligence to risk-based port inspections and compliance monitoring, Global Fishing Watch is helping countries move beyond simply collecting UBO data to using it meaningfully — strengthening accountability, transparency and fisheries governance where it matters most.
We are beginning to see some progress on UBO transparency. What lessons can we harness to help move the agenda forward?
Early experience from countries that have started to prioritize UBO — such as Panama — shows that integrating ownership transparency into existing regulatory frameworks is both feasible and practical. While these efforts are still in their early stages, they demonstrate that real pathways forward exist. With clear technical guidance and concrete examples, the upcoming F.A.O. Committee on Fisheries meeting, COFI 37, offers an opportunity to help countries translate these emerging practices into standardized approaches, anchoring vessel tracking and ownership transparency at the center of modern fisheries management.
COFI has already laid important groundwork. At COFI 34, Member States recognized the importance and challenges of identifying the beneficial owners of fishing vessels and encouraged further work on the issue. Three years later, at COFI 36, Member States reaffirmed UBO’s role in combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and agreed that the F.A.O. Global Record should examine making beneficial ownership disclosure mandatory. This momentum has been reinforced by the OECD’s 2025 recommendation calling for improved ownership transparency and recognizing UBO as essential to responsible fisheries governance.
Now comes the hard part: translating recognition into action. Transparency cannot be an add-on — it must be embedded in vessel registration, monitoring frameworks, licensing and compliance systems, with a strong focus on data quality and usability. But transparency won’t advance on good intentions alone. Countries must push the F.A.O. to deliver on the disclosure of UBO information and report concrete progress now.