Spain’s $8 Billion Fish

€6 billion in subsidies fuel Spain’s ravenous fleet

OVERVIEW: Decades of overfishing leaves Europe’s fish stocks in peril and its fishermen in poverty: an impasse paid for by EU taxpayers.

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Sentenced for trading illegally-caught Chilean sea bass

‘Pirate’ fleet owner convicted of fish fraud

Manuel Antonio Vidal Pego sentenced to prison time for trading illegally-caught Chilean sea bass.

Backlash from fishing industry officials

Fishing industry rep calls ICIJ investigation an ‘explosive cocktail that damages the Spaniards’

‘Looting the Seas II’ investigation prompts backlash from fishing industry officials, including a letter to Spain's prime minister to complain and ask for support.

Five-step process

Hake DNA testing: How we did it

Based on allegations of fraud in the hake market, ICIJ carried out a DNA study on hake in the Spanish market.

Nearly one-in-10 mislabeled

Hake hoax in Spanish markets

Nearly one-in-10 products at major markets mislabeled; Europe’s largest department store pulls fish after ICIJ investigation.

European Commissioner responds

Top fisheries official says EU is investigating illegalities by Spanish companies

The European Union’s top fisheries official, Commissioner Maria Damanaki, said her office is investigating Spanish shipowners’ involvement in illegal fishing and possible misappropriations of EU funding.

Spanish companies pressure African nation to allow them to catch more

Spain’s hake appetite threatens Namibia’s most valuable fish

Spanish-Namibian fishing magnate José Luis Bastos

Spanish companies pressure the African nation to allow them to catch more. Scientists warn that already vulnerable stocks will further decline.

Fish and organized crime

Spain doles out millions in aid despite fishing company’s record

One of the world’s most controversial fishing operations — a family-controlled company in northwestern Spain linked to more than 40 cases of alleged illegal fishing — is changing tack. Antonio Vidal Pego, co-owner of Vidal Armadores, says the company is folding, and he’s devoting himself to renewable energy and fish oil. But fisheries officials in Brussels are not convinced.

Our mission and team

About This Project: Looting the Seas II

Looting the Seas is a two-year project by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists looking at the forces that are rapidly depleting the oceans of fish. This new installment in the series focuses on Spain, the most powerful fishing nation in a region where economies and fish stocks are in shambles. An ICIJ team set out to investigate how Spain’s fishing industry wielded that power at home, in Brussels and overseas.

Analyzing the datasets

Subsidy Methodology: Looting the Seas II

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists acquired data on public aid benefiting the Spanish fishing industry between the years 2000-2010. As the European Union’s most powerful fishing nation, Spain is its largest recipient of fishing subsidies.

Key Findings

The Spanish fishing industry has received more than €5.8 billion (more than $8 billion) in subsidies from the EU and Spain since 2000 – far more than the industry of any other EU country.
Subsidies account for a third of the sector’s value. Simply put, nearly one-in-three fish caught on a hook or raised in a farm is paid for with public money.
The subsidized Spanish fleet has cultivated an extensive record of flouting the rules while officials overlook fraud and continue to dole out aid to vessels that break the law.
More than 80 percent of subsidized fishing companies that were fined in Spain for fishing infractions – and then lost subsequent court appeals – continued to receive subsidies.
One Spanish shipowner received more than €8.2 million in subsidies even while his company or its affiliates faced more than 40 accusations of illegal fishing and US$5 million in fines.