In late 2022, the refrigerated carrier vessel Sun Flower 7 departed its homeport with a declared destination of the Federated States of Micronesia, claiming it would rendezvous with tuna-fishing vessels there and return their catch to mainland Asia. Unbeknownst to the crew, fisheries surveillance officers from the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority, utilizing commercial maritime domain awareness tools, identified actions by the carrier vessel that suggested it was thousands of miles east of its declared destination, engaging in illicit fishing activity inside the exclusive economic zone of the island nation of Kiribati.
The vessel later changed course, backtracking across theThe post Cocaine Codfish: How the War on Drugs Can Inform the Fight against Illegal Fishing appeared first on War on the Rocks.