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IUU Fishing & Forced Labor Risk

Maritime AI™ For IUU Fishing & Forced Labor Risk

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is one of the greatest threats to marine ecosystems and local economies that rely on the fishing industry. Predatory fishing practices by foreign vessels at fishing hotspots violate countries’ jurisdictions, causing local stocks to deplete and disrupting the local food chain.

As the number of IUU fishing events increases and expands into new geographical areas, the threat imposed by these operations now goes well beyond environmental and natural resource concerns.

Fact! IUU fishing represents as much as 20% of the global catch, leading to losses of about $20 billion in value per year

Supporting fleets & the fishing supply chain

  •  +260 supporting commercial vessels identified for supporting IUU fishing
  • Reveal connections between IUU fishing vessels and their supporting fleets
  • Trace the catch to ensure legal, sustainable, and responsibly harvested seafood trade

Geopolitical expansion & great power competition

  • Monitor changed fishing patterns and behavioral anomalies
  • Investigate geopolitical expansion attempts
  • Analyze the evolution of fishing hot zones

Forced labor

  • Investigate fishing vessels and operators suspected to be harvesting seafood with forced labor
  • Monitor fishing vessels’ port calls to track suspicious long durations at sea
  • Trace the catch and act against illegally harvested seafood trade

The use of non-commercial vessels

  • Search for behavioral anomalies to detect suspicious vessels disguised as fishing vessels
  • Detect behavioral area abnormalities related to fishing operations outside of seasonal patterns

 

Supporting Fleets and the Fishing Supply Chain

The motivation behind illegal fishing activities is not just the economic benefits resulting from the catch. There is a growing trend of long-distance fishing vessels that use supporting fleets to establish a permanent presence regardless of seasonal limitations and to disguise criminal behaviors, such as depletion of natural resources, human trafficking, food fraud, tax evasion, and many more.

System screenshot
Windward vessel risk profile of a Panama-flagged reefer identified for IUU engagement.

Geopolitical Expansion and Great Power Competition

In the past couple of years, domestic and long-distance fishing fleets have been used for more than just maximizing the catch from each fishing zone. They are becoming essential tools for maintaining presence, asserting power, and enabling geopolitical expansion. Governments and organizations must go beyond merely looking at illegal fishing and start investigating the security risks IUU fishing operations pose.

Screenshot of platform
IUU global coverage as seen in the Windward Maritime AI™ platform.

Exposure to Forced Labor Violations

IUU fishing often involves forced labor, a form of human trafficking, and other crimes and human rights abuses. Left unchecked, labor abuses associated with IUU fishing can undermine economic competitiveness, national security, fishery sustainability, and the human rights of fishers around the world.

Screenshot of vessel profile
Windward vessel profile with a forced labor risk indicator.

The Use of Non-Commercial Vessels

Fishing is a legitimate practice, with permits allowing licensed vessels to fish in international waters, but some illicit actors choose to disguise themselves as fishing vessels to engage in criminality. Recently, a few networks of state-owned vessels acting as fishing vessels were uncovered using fishing identities and operations to conceal illegal activities, such as drug and weapon smuggling, human trafficking, and more.

Map from system
More than 300 suspicious vessels longer than 300m that are registered as fishing vessels.

Power Your Investigations with Behavioral Insights

Windward’s behavior-based model, powered by innovative Maritime AI™ and domain expertise, is designed to look further than dynamic monitoring of illegal fishing, supporting law enforcement entities, shipping companies, intelligence units, and financial institutions in their investigations of the broader criminal and political implications of IUU fishing and forced labor operations.

Protect National Security and Ensure Sustainable and Legal Trade

  • Reveal connections between IUU fishing fleets and their supporting fleets
  • Investigate geopolitical expansion attempts
  • Monitor changed fishing patterns and anomalies
  • Unique forced labor indications based on historical port calls and behavioral analysis
  • Full screening process for both white and black IUU fishing lists