In 2015, an infamously-scofflaw fleet of more than 70 bottom trawlers from Thailand fished in the Saya De Malha Bank, a submerged plateau the size of Switzerland that lies in the Indian Ocean between Mauritius and Seychelles. The trawlers dragged their nets over the ocean floor, scooping up various types of forage fish, as well as brushtooth lizardfish, round scad, and sharks. Their catch would be turned into protein-rich fishmeal that gets fed to chickens, pigs, and aquaculture fish.
Three quarters of the world's industrial fishing vessels are "dark", they are not publicly tracked. This is shown by a new study, published in Nature, which with the help of space technology and AI managed to create the first global map of how we use the ocean. The fishing vessels dominate and most of them do it stealthily. The study shows that 75% of fishing vessels neglect to broadcast their positions, which may indicate illegal fishing.
The population of seahorses in Ria Formosa in southern Portugal was probably the largest in the world. But in the mid-2010s, it collapsed, and 95% of the seahorses disappeared. Climate change, poachers, and environmental pollutants are believed to be the causes.
