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The Voluntary Guidelines for Transshipment address the regulation, monitoring and control of transshipment of fish, which have not been previously landed, whether processed or not. They are elaborated to complement and support existing and new efforts and policies recognizing that all available means in accordance with international law and other international instruments, should be used to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and fishing related activities in support of IUU fishing.

The Committee on Fisheries (COFI) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) requested an in-depth study of transshipment to develop international guidelines based on best practices. The FAO fisheries operations and technology branch took up the assignment and began its work in 2019. The team conducted a global study to shed light on current regulations, practices, and control of transshipment to assess the status quo. The study was finalized in 2020 and provides the most comprehensive foundation (based on a risk-based approach) for the development of international guidelines on transshipment, highlighting areas of persistent and emerging concern.

This report analyzed the movements of carrier vessels operating in the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) Convention area in 2016. Through analysis of AIS data, the report identified carrier vessel voyage patterns and quantity, carrier vessels' flag state patterns, the spatial distribution of potential transshipment on the high seas, and the port visit locations by carrier and flag states. The report also found that many carrier vessels did not transponder on AIS, leading to significant gaps in data on unreported transshipment events. Ultimately, the WCPFC’s management of transshipment in its Convention area is compromised by a lack of reported information on transshipment, coupled with non-compliance with reporting requirements and non-standardized reporting responses by CCMs on carrier vessels and their activities.

Transshipment at sea is a practice where refrigerated cargo vessels, also known as reefers, meet with fishing boats to exchange catch, fresh water, food and crew. Transshipment can greatly extend the time a vessel can spend at sea fishing. However, it compromises the transparency pertaining to environmental and social sustainability within the seafood industry as catch, both legal and illegal, from several fishing vessels are mixed onboard the reefer. Satellite-based AIS data and published data on the distribution of tuna was used to map tuna presence, spawning areas, and diversity. This study aims to connect transshipment vessels and distribution patterns of seven tuna species by correlating tuna distribution and spawning grounds with reefer activity.

This report reviews the transshipment measures of the five tuna RFMOs plus SEAFO and CCAMLR. Although each tuna RFMO generally prohibits at-sea transshipment except for large-scale longline fishing vessels with 100% observer coverage on the carrier vessels, the report discusses the relationship with other MCS measures leaves multiple gaps and shortfalls. Through the analysis of non-tuna RFMO transshipment measures in critical comparison, the report gives detailed recommendations to improve and strengthen tuna RFMO transshipment regulations.

The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) has found that many Western coastal countries in Africa have been unable to control and monitor transshipment at sea. These coastal countries have insufficient resources to inspect vessels before transshipment and instead rely on onboard observers monitoring for illegal activity, who have multiple shortcomings. With 37% of West African catch coming from IUU fishing, this activity puts marine management at risk and poses severe threats to the livelihoods of coastal countries' citizens. The EJF proposes banning transshipment at sea for these coastal countries, requiring them to work with the international community and improve their monitoring and control systems.

This paper highlights the use of transhipment activities to hide IUU fishing. Transshipment allows fishing vessels to stay at sea; sometimes for years at a time and has been linked to transnational crime and human rights violations. The Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (PSMA) is a binding international treaty of the United Nations’ (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
With growing participation in the PSMA AIS data can be utilised to better inform the decision making process and implementation. This paper discusses the methodology and application of AIS which offers reliable and accessible information regarding port visits that has previously been difficult to obtain.

The international community has sought to limit or ban-transshipment at sea due to the difficulty it poses in monitoring IUU fishing and controlling its effects. The WCPFC has banned purse seine vessels operating within the WCPFC Convention Area; however, for longliners and other vessels, the WCPFC merely encourages them to conduct transshipment at sea to the extent practicable. Despite proper infrastructure at port, a precedent of other vessels conducting transshipment at port, and insignificant costs, CCMs have used the "impracticability" test to continue transshipping at sea. This paper proposes replacing the "impracticability" test with bright-line rules to put an end to CCMs' patterns of transshipment at sea.

In this research study, Global Fishing Watch uses AIS information to identify where transshipment can be happening and who is doing it. About 42 percent of potential rendezvous (what is identified through AIS data to track transshipments) occur on the high seas, with the rest happening within the EEZs of different nations–especially Russia. It is concerning, however, that those areas with higher levels of reported IUU fishing correlate with areas of high potential rendezvous. With such a high level of transshipments occurring on high seas, the global community could not only benefit from using AIS data to identify illegal transshipments but must also cooperate to address lax oversight and control. This revised report improves on the methodology of the earlier finding in February 2017.

In a study commissioned by the Pacific Islands Foreign Fisheries Agency (FFA), transshipment and purse seine vessels are analyzed concerning the benefits accrued to Pacific Island Countries (PICs). The study finds that transshipment at port has not brought increased revenue in the past 18 years (as of the time of writing.) As gross revenues have not increased, neither have transshipment fees; PICs could benefit from standardizing fees not only to increase revenues but also because these fees help support monitoring and fisheries management efforts. High seas longline transshipment is there to stay for PICs, it makes financial viability possible for the fishing industry, but PICs must continuously monitor where transshipment is happening, and what benefits are accrued.

This report reviews the transshipment measures of the five tuna RFMOs plus SEAFO and CCAMLR. Although each tuna RFMO generally prohibits at-sea transshipment except for large-scale longline fishing vessels with 100% observer coverage on the carrier vessels, their relationship, the report finds, with other MCS measures leaves multiple gaps and shortfalls. Through the analysis of non-tuna RFMO transshipment measures in critical comparison to the many shortfalls found with existing measures in tuna RFMOs, the report gives detailed recommendations to improve and strengthen tuna RFMO transshipment regulations.

The Committee on Fisheries (COFI) undertook a global report on transshipment activities including the state of transshipment regulations and practices, guidance on specific control mechanisms for transshipment, and the state of independent monitoring and control over transshipment. The COFI held a workshop to overlook their report and the Global Stakeholder Survey responses they received from 91 States. The workshop concluded, among various other findings, that transshipment threatens the marine environment and human rights abuses without effective monitoring and control. However, the practice is an important cost-effective fishing operation and does not in itself pose a threat to what was previously discussed–further research must be done to see the extent of illicit transshipment operations.

This 2019 report discusses the need for Observer reporting of transshipments to provide data to the tRFMOs that is independent and reliable from both the carrier vessel and the fishing vessel. The report highlights the issues surrounding Observer reporting in the WCPF Convention Area and the responsibilities of all stakeholders including the tRFMOs, the flag States and the coastal States in relation to monitoring vessels who transship on the high seas.

This report highlights the main hotspots for transshipping at sea noting that almost 40% of all likely transshipment occurred on the high seas, beyond country boundaries. Identifying three significant those being outside the EEZ of Peru, in a high seas pocket north of Russia and Norway and an area close to the EEZ boundary of Argentina, the authors make a number of recommendations to be implemented at the global level in an effort to curb IUU fishing.

Through examination of Ghana's Fisheries Act of 2002 and Fisheries Regulation of 2010, the TaylorCrabbe Initiative seeks to answer what the legal status of Transshipment in Ghana is and if the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development can allow transshipment at sea from industrial trawlers to canoes. Under their legal reasoning, they find that no act has allowed the transshipment of fish from local trawlers to canoes. The Fisheries Commission or Council can authorize forms of transshipment, but not the Minister. Unless the transshipment has been approved and properly supervised, transshipment in Ghana is illegal.

This paper recognises seafood sustainability and human rights challenges associated with transshipment at sea
and seeks to identify global patterns in order to address these issues. Transshipment at sea, the offloading of catch from a fishing vessel to a refrigerated vessel far from port, can obscure the actual source of the catch. The authors analysed over 10,000 instances of fishing vessels loitering long enough to engage in transshipment of this, roughly 47% of the events occur on the high seas and 42% involve vessels flying flags of convenience.

In this research study, Global Fishing Watch uses AIS information to identify where transshipment can be happening and who is doing it. About 42 percent of potential rendezvous (what is identified through AIS data to track transshipments) occur on the high seas, with the rest happening within the EEZs of different nations–especially Russia. It is concerning, however, that those areas with higher levels of reported IUU fishing correlate with areas of high potential rendezvous. With such a high level of transshipments occurring on high seas, the global community could not only benefit from using AIS data to identify illegal transshipments but must also cooperate to address lax oversight and control.

This study uses AIS data to identify when and where transshipment occurs, which fisheries and fleets are most involved in the practice, and what proportion of the high-seas catch is transshipped versus landed directly, altogether giving a detailed account of global seafood supply chains. Among many other findings, the study finds that fishing in EEZs was mainly landed directly, but on high seas, transshipment largely predominated. Fleet usage also differed with trawlers mainly used in EEZs and longline fishing dominated at high seas. The study ultimately shows how the type of catch and its location shape the infrastructure of the supply food chain involved (i.e. a history of poor monitoring, low compliance, and weak enforcement correlates with a large number of transshipments in Russian waters.) The findings of this study can aid in identifying where illicit activity can be happening and what warrants more monitoring, control, and surveillance.

This paper discusses the problem of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing on the high seas and acknowledges increasing restrictions put into place to attempt to deal with the problem. The paper reports on recent trends in the numbers of fishing vessels flying Flags of Convenience, discusses at-sea transshipment and resupply fleets (a key aspect of IUU fishing), recommends specific measures to manage at-sea transshipment and resupply and; place these recommendations within the context of international actions necessary to implement the UN FAO International Plan of Action on IUU Fishing.

Greenpeace undertook a research project to understand the extent of misuse of AIS by the global reefer industry. Greenpeace identified and studied 416 reefers that make up the majority of vessels that have transshipped at sea in the period 2017-2019. From these vessels, Greenpeace found multiple instances of violations of AIS, with proof in adopting 'flags of convenience' (most commonly, Panama), the behavior of vessel interactions with 'encounter' and 'loitering,' and transshipment in areas that are unregulated or pose a threat to marine habitats. The continued violations of AIS by reefers, according to Greenpeace, calls for a robust Global Ocean Treaty that will stop these harmful activities and protect our oceans.