Fighting the Scourge of Phantom Boats on the High Seas

What a difference a decade makes. As the world stands poised to launch the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at transforming our planet by 2030, the ocean is at last firmly on the agenda. It's a welcome change from when the seas were woefully marginalized in the Millennium Development Goals. This time, the ocean is getting its own goal -- SDG 14 -- backed up by seven ambitious targets, including to combat the illegal fishing that is destroying vital stocks, and to protect far more of the ocean from exploitation. To help achieve these targets, governments should look to the collaborative initiatives already making a difference, some of which the Bertarelli Foundation is proud to support. The sea is my passion: I started sailing as a young girl and now race yachts offshore. I've been dismayed to witness first-hand the ocean's rapidly declining health, and alarmed to see some of the culprits in action. At night, the sounds a racing yacht makes against the crashing waves are unnerving. But equally disconcerting are the distant pinpricks of light sometimes seen on the horizon. Not the stars, the sailor's guiding lights, but "phantom boats," which in defiance of maritime safety codes switch off their transmitters -- or don't have them at all. Such subterfuge is usually a sign that they are fishing illegally. Pirate fishers like these rob coastal communities of food and income, and often have links with even more sinister cross-border crimes, including slavery and terro...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news