Tide of Injustice: Exploitation and Illegal Fishing on Chinese Vessels in the Southwest Indian Ocean
Executive Summary
China’s distant-water fleet (DWF) is by far the world’s largest, both in terms of the number of fishing
vessels it has and the volume of fish caught, operating across the world’s major fishing grounds.
Increasingly, this fleet has been associated with a range of illegal, unsustainable and abusive behaviours
towards marine ecosystems and crew alike. These behaviours, when considered alongside the sheer size
of its fleet, pose a serious threat to the sustainability of global fisheries and the wellbeing of fishers, and
the millions of people who rely on the ocean for their livelihoods, while undermining good governance
and the rule of national laws and international regulation in fisheries.
This report maps the presence and activities of the Chinese DWF in the Southwest Indian Ocean (SWIO),
a region notable for its biodiversity-rich seascape, which is a lifeline to coastal communities across its
shores. China has long-standing and intensifying economic and political ties with the region, and has
highlighted the SWIO’s blue economy as a key area of investment and partnership. In light of the now
better known risks associated with the presence of China’s DWF, such investments should be scrutinised
so as to ensure the SWIO’s blue economy is legal, sustainable and equitable.
This report draws upon primary and secondary data sources. Primary data includes interviews with
Indonesian, Filipino and Mozambican fishers who have worked on board the Chinese DWF in the SWIO.
To supplement this, a wide range of secondary sources were consulted in order to develop a detailed
picture of both the presence and behaviours of the fleet within the region, placed within a broader context
of onshore Chinese investments and political influence.
The findings of the report show that while couched in terms of win-win, sustainable development and
collective benefits from the blue economy, the realities on board many vessels in China’s DWF are in
direct contradiction of these stated aims. Illegal fishing and human rights abuses were found to be
commonplace on Chinese vessels in the SWIO, including routine shark finning, the deliberate capture
and/or injury of vulnerable marine megafauna, and crews suffering from physical violence, abusive
working and living conditions, intimidation and threats.