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Looting the Seas III

After years of intensive fishing, jack mackerel stocks in the southern Pacific have declined dramatically. Some experts say the only way to save the fishery is to impose a total ban for five years. Periódico El Ciudadano

'Free-for-all' decimates fish stocks in the southern Pacific

By Mort Rosenblum and Mar Cabra

Eric Pineda peered deep into the Achernar’s hold at a measly 10 tons of jack mackerel after four days in waters once so rich they filled the 57-foot boat in a few hours. The dock agent, like everyone in this old port south of Santiago, grew up with the bony, bronze-hued fish they call jurel, which roams in schools in the southern Pacific.

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Looting the Seas III

About this project

By The Int'l Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Looting the Seas is an award-winning project by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists looking at forces that are rapidly emptying oceans of fish.

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Looting the Seas III

The Santa María II belongs to Lota Protein, owned by the Koppernaes Group in Norway, which has waged a 21-month legal war with eight powerful groups that own rights to 87 percent of jack mackerel in Chilean waters. Juan Pablo Figueroa Lasch/ICIJ

Lords of the fish

By Juan Pablo Figueroa Lasch

It is 10:30 a.m. on an August Sunday, seven miles off Corral port, and crewmen on the Santa María II haul in the net after half an hour in the water. Captain Eduardo Marzán watches from the bridge, face grim. To his left, 14 other ships circle slowly as his has done for four days in fruitless search of sardines.

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Looting the Seas III

Slideshow: Plunder in the South Pacific

By The Int'l Consortium of Investigative Journalists

During the 1990s, Chileans caught more than 28 million metric tons of jack mackerel. Today, as stocks plummet, vessels struggle to find fish. 

Juan Pablo Figueroa Lasch/ICIJ

Chilean fishermen aboard the vessel Achernar haul a meager load of jack mackerel up from the hold.

Mort Rosenblum/ICIJ

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Fishermen sort jack mackerel aboard the Achernar before the catch is transferred by truck to a nearby fishmeal plant.

Mort Rosenblum/ICIJ

From New Zealand’s Waiheke Island, activist Martini Gotje tracks fleets across the Pacific and beyond, compiling a black list of vessels that fish illegally.

Mort Rosenblum/ICIJ

A crewman stands among a small load of jack mackerel aboard the Achernar. In better days, the hold was full within hours. 

Mort Rosenblum/ICIJ

Jack mackerel sold at market in Valpariso, on Chile’s coast. 

Valerie Schenkman

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A fishmeal plant in the southern Chile port of Lota. Jack mackerel is turned into feed for aquaculture and pigs.

Juan Pablo Figueroa Lasch/ICIJ

Along with industrial vessels, small-scale Peruvian fishermen survive by catching anchoveta not far from shore. 

Milagros Salazar/ICIJ

Jack mackerel, fresh off the boat, is prepared for markets in Peru.

Mort Rosenblum/ICIJ

A fresh catch of anchoveta heads to a fishmeal plant in Peru. Peruvian anchoveta is the world’s largest fishery.

Milagros Salazar/ICIJ

At the China Fishery Group fishmeal plant in La Planchada, Peru, few outsiders are allowed past the gate. CFG is a subsidiary of seafood giant Pacific Andes International Holdings from Hong Kong.

Milagros Salazar/ICIJ

Jack mackerel populations are so low off Chile’s coast that fleets have not reached their full quotas since 2007.

Juan Pablo Figueroa Lasch/ICIJ

Looting the Seas III

Methodology: Behind the numbers

By The Int'l Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Peru is second only to China as a fishing nation, and its main catch is anchoveta. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, with the Lima-based investigative center IDL-Reporteros, decided to analyze how the anchoveta fishery — the world’s largest — was regulated and controlled.

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Looting the Seas

Kiyoshi Kimura, president of Kiyomura Co., left, cuts a bluefin tuna in front of his Sushi Zanmai restaurant near Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012. The bluefin tuna caught off northeastern Japan fetched a record 56.49 million yen, or about $736,000, in the first auction of the year at the fish market.  Shizuo Kambayashi/AP Photo

Record-setting $736,000 paid for bluefin tuna poor indicator of scarcity

By Corbin Hiar

While the bluefin tuna is widely acknowledged to be overfished, the price paid Thursday for one 593-pound catch isn’t a clear sign of just how endangered the tuna has become.

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Looting the Seas I

Bluefin tuna are dragged live to sea "ranches" in the Mediterranean, where they are fattened for months before being shot in the head and shipped to Japan. Felix Sanchez

Fishing nations approve overhaul of bluefin tuna tracking system

By Kate Willson and Marina Walker Guevara

Nearly 50 countries that trade in high-priced Eastern Atlantic Bluefin Tuna voted Saturday to transform an archaic paper-based system into an electronic fish-tracking database that will make it harder for fleets to smuggle plundered bluefin into market.

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Looting the Seas II

Regulators around the world have pointed to Vidal Armadores in more than 40 allegations of illegal fishing. The company's co-owner, Manuel Antonio Vidal Pego, is pictured here with unidentified acquaintances. He says he is the victim of an international conspiracy by big fishing nations. New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries

‘Pirate’ fleet owner convicted of fish fraud

By Kate Willson and Mar Cabra

A Spanish ship-owner with a voluminous record of skirting international laws – and who swears he has never fished illegally – has been sentenced in Spain to one year and eight months in prison for trying to unload fish caught by one of his vessels.

An Australian patrol boat spotted the Hammer, owned by Manuel Antonio Vidal Pego, fishing without authorization in protected Antarctic waters in December 2005. In an attempt to mask the source of those fish, Vidal Pego twice renamed the vessel, finally settling on Chilbo San 33 and registering the ship in North Korea. The shipment of 240 tons of Chilean sea bass was confiscated by South Korean authorities after it was sold for more than $2.7 million to Uruguay-based Coast Line S.A., an affiliate of the Spanish seafood company Freiremar.

According to the sentencing documents, Vidal Pego masked from his trade partners that he had used a boat blacklisted for having previously circumvented international regulations. Once a boat lands in a black list it is banned from fishing in protected Antarctic waters.

Vidal Pego's lawyer said in court that the charge stems from an error on the company’s import declaration and has appealed the case.  “We’re sure we will win, because we’re right,” said Foro Hernández, spokesperson for Vidal Pego, in an interview with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

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Looting the Seas II

Nine organizations of the Spanish fishing industry attacked ICIJ's 'Looting the Seas II' investigation during a press conference in Madrid. Mar Cabra/ICIJ

IMPACT: Fishing industry rep calls ICIJ investigation an 'explosive cocktail that damages the Spaniards'

By Mar Cabra

The latest investigation of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is part of an “international campaign against Spain and its fishing industry," representatives of the Spanish fishing industry announced at a press conference held today in front of the Spanish Fishing Secretariat in Madrid.

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Looting the Seas II

Hake is Spain’s most popular fish. The average citizen eats more than four kilos per year. Mar Cabra/ICIJ

Hake hoax in Spanish markets

By Mar Cabra, Marcos Garcia Rey and Kate Willson

Consumers in Spain trust the mild-flavored white flesh of hake, the most popular fish in a country that eats more seafood than almost any other in Europe. Hake is considered safe for pregnant women, and kids crunch into the cod-like fillets as fishsticks.

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