Plundered Oceans: The Global Hunt for Illegal Fishing Trawlers

We are outfishing our oceans. Our collective appetite for seafood outstrips supply. As a result, we overfish more and more to meet that demand, reaching deeper into the breeding stocks of fish. Several commercial species are on the brink of extinction. A fragile network of treaties is meant to protect the most vulnerable fishing stocks, but stateless illegal fishing fleets pillage the ocean at will. The chase to stop the FV STS-50, one of the most notorious vessels on the water in 2018, illustrates the challenges investigators, scientists and governments face when trying to preserve life in the modern world's oceans.