Image caption: Ray in the Southern Oceans. Name at the time was Tropic
Angola has denied the IUU listed vessel Ray a fishing license and has asked the vessel to leave the port of Luanda immediately.
The Ray, IMO 6607666, is on the CCAMLR and the SEAFO IUU vessel lists. April 12th this year she arrived in Luanda from Singapore, applying for a fishing license. The vessel, that used to be involved in toothfish longlining had been rebuilt for gill net fishing.
The new registered owner of the vessel is Belfast Global, SA 53rd E Street, Urbanizacion Marbella MMG Tower, 16th Floor Panamá – Republica Panama. The operator of the vessel is Belfast Global S.A. Explanada del Castillo S/N 35008 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain).
According to LexisNexis Mr. Juan Manuel Freire Rodriguez of Belfast Global is an executive of Freiremar Sociedad Anonomia, Avenida de los Consignatorios S/N, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 35008 Spain. This is the same address and similar name as Freiremar SA.
Freiremar SA is the former owner of Ray’s sister vessel Challenge, IMO 6622642. Challenge is on the CCAMLR IUU vessel list for fishing inside the CCAMLR regulatory area without a license. The first sighting of the vessel in unregulated fishing in the CCAMLR area was in 2006. Freiremar was associated with the vessel from the year 2000 (through what appears to be a subsidiary; Prion Ltd in Falkland Islands to January 2005) to October 2005 when the vessel was sold to Argibay Perez JA, Apdo 141, 15960 Santa Uxia de Ribeira (La Coruna), Spain.
Argibay Perez owned Ray until Belfast Global bought her and is also the owner of another CCAMLR and SEAFO IUU listed vessel, the Pion, which left Singapore together with the Ray in March this year.
For a complete overview of the history of the vessels, click the links to the combined IUU vessel list below: