Can Technology End Pirate Fishing? | gCaptain

I’m not sure where I sit on this one. On the one hand, I HATE how “they” are constantly spying on us, everywhere we go (NOT talking about just the fishermen- we are ALL spyed on continuously here in the supposed land of the free). On the other hand, I do agree that pirate fishing IS a problem and needs to be dealt with. I remember when I was sailing as captain of a tuna purse seiner in the South Pacific and we caught another boat we thought was fishing illegally. Against the objections of my crew, the 1st time we caught them, we gave them the benefit of the doubt. It was ‘possible’ (not very likely) that he was not cheating, so we didn’t report him. The 2nd time, we caught him doing the same thing, illegal fishing on a FAD (fish attracting device), I reported him to our (USA) fisheries dept, (after checking in with our port captain). They asked for and I sent in photos of the other fishing vessel. They never contacted me or anyone on my vessel again so although they SAID they were going to investigate, I don’t think they ever did. My fishmaster was furious the other guy was allowed to get away with it (illegal fishing operation) and I would not allow HIM to. So, the cheating goes on since no one is caught and punished even when there is evidence. The fish keep getting caught without any chance of replacing themselves and sooner or later they are going to run out in the Atlantic and Pacific, just like they did (bottom fish) here in the Gulf of Mexico years ago.