Vast areas of the world’s oceans remain effectively unmonitored, allowing illegal fishing and serious human rights abuses to persist out of sight. A new report from the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) calls for urgent, fleet-wide adoption of onboard CCTV, arguing it could transform transparency for a sustainable ocean.

The report finds that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is routinely linked to violence, intimidation and forced labour. The chronic lack of independent oversight on fishing vessels, particularly in distant-water and high seas fisheries, enables this.

Fisheries observers, long considered the gold standard, cover only a small fraction of global fishing trips and are exposed to intimidation and violence. At least 14 fisheries observers have gone missing or died in suspicious circumstances in the past decade. Other existing monitoring tools, such as vessel tracking systems and logbooks, cannot capture what happens on or below deck, leaving critical blind spots.

Drawing on case studies from around the world, the report finds that onboard CCTV can deter crime and abuse, and provide independently verifiable evidence for enforcement.

In Taiwan, the near-fleet-wide rollout of CCTV across distant-water vessels has helped deter shark finning and the illegal killing of protected species. One fisher reported to EJF that “There are laws and CCTV now. If we got a shark, it would be cut [loose].”

In Denmark, cameras installed on trawlers significantly reduced illegal discarding of juvenile cod, which previously would have been thrown overboard to preserve quotas. In Ghana, two observers have disappeared since 2019; CCTV pilots show potential to prevent this.

However, the report warns that CCTV is not a silver bullet. Without strong legal frameworks, independent access to data and protections for fishers’ rights, the technology risks being misused. In fleets where onboard rules are violently enforced, such as China’s, CCTV may be used to surveil and punish vulnerable crew rather than protect them.

The report stresses the need for strong privacy safeguards, tamper-proof systems, clear data-sharing rules and meaningful involvement of fishers in the design and rollout of monitoring programmes.

Steve Trent, CEO and Founder of the Environmental Justice Foundation, said: “When vessels operate beyond scrutiny, ecosystems are plundered, and workers are exploited with impunity. The evidence from pilot studies shows that CCTV can be a powerful tool to bring these abuses into the light.”

“It provides round-the-clock, verifiable eyes on the water, seeing where traditional monitoring goes dark. This makes it far harder for perpetrators to get away with crimes at sea; it's time now to deploy CCTV across every fleet around the globe.”

The report recommends:

• Making CCTV a standard component of fisheries monitoring systems;

• Expanding its use to monitor labour and human rights conditions, not just environmental compliance;

• Ensuring secure, independent access to footage for enforcement and investigations;

• Pairing CCTV with onboard Wi-Fi, so crew can report abuse in real time;

• That all governments endorse and implement the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency.
  
  

ENDS

About EJF

Our work to secure environmental justice aims to protect our global climate, ocean, forests, wetlands, wildlife and defend the fundamental human right to a secure natural environment, recognising that all other rights are contingent on this. EJF works internationally to inform policy and drive systemic, durable reforms to protect our environment and defend human rights. We investigate and expose abuses and support environmental defenders, Indigenous peoples, communities, and independent journalists on the frontlines of environmental injustice. Our campaigns aim to secure peaceful, equitable and sustainable futures. Our investigators, researchers, filmmakers, and campaigners work with grassroots partners and environmental defenders across the globe. For more information or to organise an interview with one of our team, please contact media@ejfoundation.org.