THAT LOOKS A BIT FISHY

MORE fishing vessels are fishing illegally, without proper regulation and abusing human labour than previously thought, according to an Aussie and international analysis.

The rate of labour abuse and illegal fishing practices is hard to measure, so researchers combined estimations from researchers, businesses, human rights organisations and governments with satellite information on fishing activities to estimate how much is going on. By mapping the fishing activity of more than eight million vessels from 2012–19, they say 57 per cent of the ports they assessed were associated with illegal activities and 82 per cent of the trips ending in those ports were dodgy.

The authors note that riskier vessels were less likely to visit ports that had ratified the Port State Measures Agreement and also stay in port for less time.