Shenanigans on the high seas

There's an interesting article (it may require a login) in last week's Economist about the Polestar, a tramper that carries fish without using sea containers, that was detained by Moroccan armed forces at the request of several European governments. It was on a blacklist of ships known to be involved in illegal fishing. It had picked up a consignment of Pollock from one of the world's few certified sustainable fisheries, off the coast of Alaska, that was destined for Europe. The cargo has been allowed to proceed on a legal ship but the Polestar's fate is undecided.

The worry is that cargoes that come from Marine Stewardship Council certified fish stocks, which companies like WalMart and Unilever are increasingly committed to using (see the links for details of their schemes), can become contaminated with illegally fished cargoes. Until the entire supply chain can be validated as clean then the world's fish stocks will remain under threat. And as the above article pointed out, the business of international shipping is notoriously lawless.