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Yesterday, CBP declared that it will prohibit any fish caught on the fishing vessel DA WANG due to reports of forced labor on the vessel. Let's explore the vessel’s opaque ownership and how it fits into a bigger picture of IUU fishing & forced labor:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-issues-detention-order-seafood-harvested-forced-labor-0
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-issues-detention-order-seafood-harvested-forced-labor-0
DA WANG is named in the @Greenpeace and @dpnsbmi report, Seabound, for the forced labor of fishers on the vessel. One fisher reportedly died after being beaten and then forced to work through the injury. https://www.greenpeace.org/southeastasia/publication/3428/seabound-the-journey-to-modern-slavery-on-the-high-seas/
DA WANG is flagged to Vanuatu, a flag of convenience (FOC), per the Intl. Transport Workers Federation. FOC vessels follow flag country laws, not the laws of their owner’s country, minimizing regulation & increasing the risk of forced labor and IUU fishing. https://www.itfglobal.org/en/sector/seafarers/flags-of-convenience
According to IHS Markit, Yong Feng Fishery Co Ltd in Vanuatu is the owner of DA WANG. But when we checked the Vanuatu corporate registry, we saw that Yong Feng Fishery is an international company, meaning that it is actually based elsewhere.
Because Vanuatu is a secrecy jurisdiction, the trail gets murky. Before we further investigated, there was no indication, other than the name, of which foreign company controls Yong Feng Fishery, or where they might be based.
Regional fishery management records and AIS data from @WindwardOceans provide clues: the vessel's master is Taiwanese, and 6/7 of its recorded port calls were to Taiwan. We finally confirmed Taiwanese ownership by checking Taiwan’s list of FOC vessels owned by entities in Taiwan.
Unfortunately, the list of vessels didn’t include the ultimate owner. When we checked the Taiwanese corporate registry, we found that there used to be a Taiwanese company called 永豐漁業股份有限公司, or Yong Feng Fishery Co Ltd, but that it became defunct in 2016.
So where does that leave us? We’ve got a shell company in a secrecy jurisdiction; a potential, but defunct, match in the owner state; and a lack of transparency regarding the vessel’s ownership in both Taiwan and Vanuatu.
This case makes clear that Flags of Convenience and secrecy jurisdictions enable crimes including illegal fishing and forced labor, and may have contributed to the death of the fisher on DA WANG.
But it also highlights the possibilities for action. While the ownership of illicit vessels is important, CBP’s action shows how states can act to stymie tainted supply chains & incentivize legal, ethical behavior.
