A patrol boat off the coast of Gabon intercepted three trawlers in July 2026, inside the Grand Sud Reserve. This is one of west and central Africa’s largest marine reserves, where industrial trawling is banned. None of the trawlers held a valid licence. The patrol found them because analysts at the non-profit Global Fishing Watch had studied satellite data and worked out where to look.
Most illegal fishing is not caught at all. In 2024, researchers at Global Fishing Watch found that between 72% and 76% of the world’s industrial fishing vessels never appear in public tracking. Most of that activity is concentrated around south and south-east Asia and Africa.
