Five vessels have been added to the Combined IUU List. The vessels were IUU-listed by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) at their 22nd Session, held in Bangkok in May 2018 (full IOTC IUU list available here).
The fishing vessels CHAICHANACHOKE 8, CHAINAVEE 54, CHAINAVEE 55 and SUPPHERMNAVEE 21 were sighted fishing in Somali waters in March and April 2017. The vessels were flagged to Djibouti at the time, and were not authorised to fish for tuna or tuna-like species in the IOTC area. On 27 April 2017 the vessels were sighted transhipping at sea to the Honduras-flagged refrigerated cargo vessel WISDOM SEA REEFER, which was not authorised to conduct transhipment of IOTC species. Subsequent inspection found that the catch transhipped included species under the mandate of IOTC (bonito/kawakawa). All four fishing vessels and the reefer have been IUU listed by IOTC.
The fishing vessels were deregistered by Djibouti in June 2017 and their current flag is not known. WISDOM SEA REEFER reflagged to Bolivia and was renamed RENOWN REEFER in December 2017.
(Photo source: IOTC)