How To Protect The Ocean

In a single day in March 2024, Gambian navy officers arrested eight industrial trawlers. Seven were fishing in waters reserved for local canoes, four were using illegal nets, and every one had switched off its tracking beacon. That one patrol shows a problem playing out across the global ocean. About three in four industrial fishing vessels are not publicly tracked, and many of the boats supplying the fishmeal that feeds farmed fish are among the hardest to see.
In this episode of How to Protect the Ocean, Andrew Lewin follows the boats that catch the fish behind fish feed. He covers how vessels go dark, repaint and reflag, and how transshipment lets them stay at sea for months. He looks at fishmeal-linked boats working inside marine protected areas and the crew members who pay the price when help is weeks away. He also tells the story of Viktor Boshko, a deckhand who spent nearly two weeks at sea with a crushed arm before reaching a hospital.
The episode also covers what's working. The Gambia partnered with Sea Shepherd to put armed patrols at sea. Indonesia became the first country to publish its fleet's tracking data on a free public map. Satellite radar now detects boats with their beacons off, and port controls are closing doors on illegal catch. Andrew ends with a simple action you can take tonight from your phone.
Takeaways
About 75% of the world's industrial fishing vessels are not publicly tracked, according to a 2024 Nature study.
Fewer than 30% of the 2,400+ ships tied to fishmeal production have public location data, and fewer than 10% are in the UN's global vessel record.
Without a permanent ID, a boat caught fishing illegally can repaint, rename and reflag, then return to fishing.
Transshipment lets fishing boats offload at sea and stay out for months, out of reach of inspectors and medical help.
Public tracking data, satellite radar and port controls are making it harder for dark vessels to hide.
You can explore the Global Fishing Watch map for free and see who is fishing near your coast.
Links shared in the episode:
Global Fishing Watch map: https://globalfishingwatch.org/map
Supporting links
Outlaw Ocean Project, Food for Feed findings. This is the source for the fishmeal fleet stats: the 2,400 ships, the under 30% / 25% / 10% figures, the 70+ ships in MPAs, and the 50 crew deaths and injuries. https://foodforfeed.theoutlawocean.com/findings
Bait to Plate. Their free tool traces fishmeal from vessel to plant to retailer. It ties in well with yesterday's "email your favourite company" action. https://baittoplate.theoutlawocean.com
Outlaw Ocean, The Gambia story. This covers the 2019 patrol, the blank logbooks and the crew sleeping on the wheelhouse roof. https://foodforfeed.theoutlawocean.com/reporting/the-gambia
Outlaw Ocean, Russia story. This covers Viktor Boshko and the Kalinovka. https://foodforfeed.theoutlawocean.com/reporting/russia
Sea Shepherd Global. This is their report on the March 2024 arrest of eight trawlers. https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/latest-news/eight-trawlers-arrested-gambia
ESA summary of the 2024 Nature study. This explains the 75% untracked finding. https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-1/Sentinel-1_and_AI_reveal_75_of_fishing_vessels_not_tracked
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On a May morning in 2017, the people of Gunjur in The Gambia woke to find their lagoon had turned red, with dead fish on the surface. Investigators traced the pollution to a fishmeal plant up the road. In this episode, Andrew Lewin follows the feed from West African beaches to farmed salmon fillets in Europe and North America, building on The Outlaw Ocean Project's five-year investigation into the fishmeal industry.
Small, oily fish like sardinella and bonga are everyday protein in Senegal and The Gambia. Fishmeal plants buy them in unlimited volumes, outbid the women who have smoked and sold fish on the beach for generations, and ship the oil north to feed salmon. Andrew walks through what that means for families who struggle to put three meals on the table, for communities living beside the plants, and for fishers who risk the Atlantic crossing to the Canary Islands when the fish run out.
Communities are fighting back. Abéné in southern Senegal got its plant suspended within three months of opening, and major salmon feed buyers say they have stopped sourcing from the region. Andrew closes with one action that takes two minutes: email the brand behind the farmed salmon or shrimp you buy and ask where its feed comes from.
Takeaways
Fishmeal and fish oil link West African food security to farmed salmon sold around the world
Fishmeal plants outbid local women processors, driving up fish prices and pushing them out of work
Plant wastewater and stench affect millions of people who live nearby
Collapsing fish stocks are one of several factors pushing people onto the deadly Atlantic route to the Canary Islands
Abéné, Senegal, used protests, petitions and a community vote to suspend a plant within three months
Mowi and Skretting say they stopped sourcing West African fish oil in 2023
One email asking your seafood brand whether its feed contains West African fishmeal or fish oil adds pressure for change
Links:
The Outlaw Ocean Project (main site): https://theoutlawocean.com/
Food for Feed investigation (fishmeal series): https://foodforfeed.theoutlawocean.com/
Gambia reporting: https://foodforfeed.theoutlawocean.com/reporting/gambia
Mauritania reporting: https://foodforfeed.theoutlawocean.com/reporting/mauritania
Outlaw Ocean Substack: https://theoutlawocean.substack.com/
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The family behind the world's largest salmon farming company built a global industry. Now one of its members is asking how it can be sustainable to grind up fish from poorer countries, ship them across the world, and feed them to salmon sold to wealthier shoppers. In episode 2048, Andrew Lewin follows farmed fish from your plate back to the fishmeal boat to answer him.
More than half the seafood eaten worldwide now comes from farms, and most of it is fed. Andrew breaks down what fishmeal and fish oil are made of, why roughly a fifth of the global wild catch ends up as feed, and how forage fish declines show the strain on the small fish that tuna, seabirds, whales and coastal communities depend on. He also explains why a half-billion-dollar insect farm couldn't replace fishmeal, and how Norway cut marine ingredients from salmon feed while total wild fish use kept climbing.
The fastest fix is already at the seafood counter. Mussels, oysters and clams eat plankton straight from the water and need no feed at all. This is the first of four episodes on fish feed, drawing on reporting from The Outlaw Ocean Project. This week, swap one farmed salmon or shrimp meal for farmed bivalves.
Takeaways
More than half of the world's seafood now comes from fish farms, and about two-thirds of farmed seafood is fed.
Fishmeal is made by cooking and grinding small fish like anchoveta, sardinella and herring, and most of those fish are suitable for people to eat.
Forage fish declines are hitting fisheries worldwide, including Canada's 2022 herring quota cut and Atlantic mackerel closure.
Insect protein and other alternatives remain far too small to replace the fishmeal fish farms use each year.
Norway cut marine ingredients in salmon feed from about 90% to 22% over 30 years, yet industry growth pushed total wild fish use higher.
Farmed mussels, oysters and clams need no feed, making them one of the lowest-pressure seafood choices available.
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More than half the seafood eaten on Earth now comes from fish farms, and most of those farmed fish are raised on fishmeal made from wild-caught fish. Maya Martin, deputy editor at The Outlaw Ocean Project, joins Andrew Lewin to unpack Food for Feed, a five-year investigation that traced fishmeal from the ships that catch it, through the plants that grind it, to the farmed fish on your plate.
Maya explains how forage fish like sardinella and anchoveta are pulled from waters off West Africa, Peru and Southeast Asia, often from stocks that are already overexploited and from communities that depend on them for food and work. She walks through the stench and toxic waste that surround fishmeal plants, the protests they spark, the deaths and injuries of workers, the fire-retardant chemical ethoxyquin, and fish farms built in China's Xinjiang desert whose salmon has reached US institutions. She also shows how the team's Bait to Plate tool lets anyone follow a supply chain end to end, and why third-party certifications have missed many of these problems.
You'll leave knowing which seafood choices avoid the fishmeal problem, from filter-feeding shellfish to local catch you can see come in, and which organizations are pushing retailers and governments to clean up the supply chain. Content note: this episode discusses forced labour, violence, deaths at sea and migrant deaths. Explore the investigation at foodforfeed.theoutlawocean.com and baittoplate.theoutlawocean.com.
Links mentioned in this episode
Food for Feed investigation: https://foodforfeed.theoutlawocean.com
Bait to Plate supply chain tool: https://baittoplate.theoutlawocean.com
Food for Feed findings: https://foodforfeed.theoutlawocean.com/findings
Methodology, including country-by-country partner groups: https://foodforfeed.theoutlawocean.com/methodology
Company and certifier responses (Discussion page): https://discussion.theoutlawocean.com/food-for-feed
The Outlaw Ocean Project: https://theoutlawocean.com
Amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.org
Greenpeace: https://www.greenpeace.org
Oceana: https://oceana.org
Sea Shepherd: https://seashepherd.org
The Outlaw Ocean Project's New York Times follow-up on eating seafood sustainably: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/09/briefing/fish-food.html
Previous HTPTO episode with Dr. Marine Cusa (Oceana) on fishmeal: 
Fish Feed in Aquaculture: https://www.speakupforblue.com/show/speak-up-for-the-ocean-blue/podcast-28/
The Squid You Eat is a Mystery: https://www.speakupforblue.com/show/speak-up-for-the-ocean-blue/podcast-82/

Takeaways
More than half of the world's seafood comes from aquaculture, and more than two-thirds of farmed seafood depends on fishmeal and fish oil from wild fish
At least half of the species landed by fishmeal vessels assessed in the investigation are overexploited or worse
Roughly 90% of the catch used for fishmeal is edible for people, and in West Africa sardinella is a staple protein and a livelihood
More than 9.5 million people live within a mile of a fishmeal plant, and the investigation documented at least 80 incidents of civil unrest tied to the industry
Over half of more than 550 seafood companies making strong sustainability claims had documented crimes or concerns in their supply chains
Farmed shellfish like mussels, oysters and clams need no feed, which makes them a lower-impact choice
Your action: look up one farmed seafood product you buy on Bait to Plate and see where its feed came from

Picture a big sign over the seafood counter promising sustainable fishing, with a fish every independent guide says to avoid sitting on ice right below it. In most countries nobody broke a rule, because the word "sustainable" on seafood has no legal definition. In this final episode of our sustainable seafood week, Andrew Lewin walks you through how to see past that sign and choose seafood you can feel good about.
You'll learn how to use the eco-labels and seafood guides that have already done the research for you, including the Marine Stewardship Council's blue tick for wild seafood, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council label for farmed seafood, and regional guides like Seafood Watch, Ocean Wise, the Good Fish Guide and GoodFish. Andrew explains why tuna can be a best choice or one to avoid depending on species, ocean and gear, how to ask the person behind the counter without making them the target, why "local" on vacation deserves a second look, why eating invasive lionfish and blue catfish helps, and how to think about shark on the menu.
Then Andrew answers the voice in your head that says one shopper can't matter. The story of Louisiana shrimp shows how a Seafood Watch rating, the businesses that follow it, and the customers behind them pushed a state to start enforcing sea turtle protections again. Your next seafood purchase is part of that same pressure. Pre-order David Shiffman's book Why Sustainable Seafood Matters using the link in the show notes.
Takeaways
"Sustainable" and "responsibly sourced" have no standard legal definition on seafood in the US or Canada, so treat store signs as marketing
Look for the MSC blue tick on wild seafood and the ASC label on farmed seafood, and use your region's seafood guide
The same species can be a best choice or one to avoid depending on where and how it was caught
Ask the counter staff politely; if they can't tell you where or how a fish was caught, choose something else
Eating invasive species like lionfish and blue catfish helps native ecosystems
In 2013 Seafood Watch red-listed Louisiana shrimp over a law blocking sea turtle protections, and by 2015 the state repealed that law
Your action: download your country's seafood guide and look up one item before your next purchase
Pre-Order Dr. David Shiffman's book called "Why Sustainable Seafood Matters"
Support Independent Podcasts: https://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon
Need help with your ocean non-profit, company, or project? Get the help you need with Pisces Oceans Inc.: https://www.piscesoceans.ca

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