Oceana has unveiled potential cases of illegal, unreported and poorly regulated fishing in the waters of the Mediterranean -  the world’s most overfished sea (80% of fish stocks). The findings from this analysis will be submitted to the meeting of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) this week in Tirana, Albania.  The analysis is based on the Global Fishing Watch fishing detection algorithm and examined data from throughout 2018. In total, Oceana identified more than 28 thousand hours of apparent fishing inside protected areas of the Mediterranean Sea.

The most concerning case relates to more than 14,000 hours of apparent fishing by 56 bottom trawling vessels in three Fisheries Restricted Areas (FRAs) in the Strait of Sicily. Since 2017, trawling has been prohibited in these areas which serve as nursery grounds for young hake—the most overfished species in the Mediterranean—and deep-water rose shrimp.