Illegal Fishing News

MORONDAVA, Madagascar — When older people on Madagascar’s west coast were children, there were so many sharks that they had to be a bit careful when playing in the water.…

JAKARTA — Fish stocks in a marine national park in Indonesia increased significantly in the years after a ban on the use of coral-destroying nets was imposed, a recent study…

Scientists and conservation activists conducting a survey for the critically endangered vaquita in October witnessed more than 70 fishing boats within the porpoise’s protected Gulf of California refuge, according to…

JAKARTA — Maritime experts have slammed the decision by Indonesia’s president to replace his experienced and internationally praised fisheries minister with a political appointee. Susi Pudjiastuti, the country’s fisheries minister…

Millions of people around the world suffer from malnutrition despite the ready availability of essential nutrients just off their coastlines. Dietary deficiencies in iron, calcium and other micronutrients are responsible…

The prospect of monitoring every vessel at sea in real time has moved a step closer to reality as a new generation of surveillance satellites takes to the skies. The…

To read about the artificial reefs of Jiquilisco Bay in depth, see the companion piece to this article: Salvadoran fishermen ditch blast fishing for artificial reefs JIQUILISCO BAY, El Salvador…

To read an interview with the man who sparked the artificial reefs of Jiquilisco Bay, see the companion piece to this article: Bringing back the fish: Q&A with a repentant…

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — The Sierra Leone government closed the country’s waters to fishing during the entire month of April to give flagging fish stocks a chance to rebuild. During…

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A crackdown on unregulated explosives in the aftermath of deadly terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka may help in the fight against illegal blast fishing in the…

According to a report this week by Quartz, two Chinese nationals were arrested last month in the state of California with $3.7-million-worth of totoaba swim bladders that they had smuggled…

In mid-May Chile finalized an agreement to publicly share proprietary data from its satellite system for monitoring fishing boats, known as a Vessel Monitoring System. The country will share the…

Conventional wisdom holds that marine protected areas don’t offer much in the way of protections to highly migratory species of marine life, given that those species are unaware of the…

JAKARTA — Many of the fishing vessels operating in Indonesia’s waters at night do so undetected, masking what could be illegal fishing on a massive scale, according to a new…

When fisherfolk in India’s westernmost state of Gujarat find a whale shark tangled in their fishing nets, it’s an unwelcome sight. They can’t legally harvest the protected species, yet the…

Illegal fishing, overfishing and pollution are common problems in the waters of South America. But the overarching problem, the one that enables the rest, is weak governance, according to experts.…

AMBON, Indonesia — Last February, a crocodile in eastern Indonesia crawled right into a trap. The animal, a 2-meter-long (6.6-foot) saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), was suspected to have preyed on…

In 2011, the government of Honduras declared the country’s waters a shark sanctuary. The move obliged indigenous peoples who have been catching sharks for generations and for whom the fish represent…

Three suspected totoaba poachers were reportedly shot yesterday by Mexican marines following a confrontation over illegal gillnets that had been confiscated. According to local news outlet Fronteras, the governor of…

In 1975, famed explorer and conservationist Jacques Cousteau traveled aboard his boat, the Calypso, in hopes of documenting one of nature’s most impressive underwater gatherings: the spawning of the Nassau…