As stocks crash, 1 in 3 fish paid for with public money
€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.
Spain’s $8 Billion Fish
Spain’s fishing industry racked up an extensive history of flouting rules and breaking laws.
In this investigation
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.
By Mar Cabra | March 15, 2012
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.
By ICIJ | October 2, 2011
Graph: What’s happened to hake?
Key Findings
European Commissioner responds
Top fisheries official says EU is investigating illegalities by Spanish companies
Backlash from fishing industry officials
Fishing industry rep calls ICIJ investigation an ‘explosive cocktail that damages the Spaniards’
Five-step process
Hake DNA testing: How we did it
Spanish companies pressure African nation to allow them to catch more
Spain’s hake appetite threatens Namibia’s most valuable fish
Fish and organized crime
Spain doles out millions in aid despite fishing company’s record
Sentenced for trading illegally-caught Chilean sea bass
‘Pirate’ fleet owner convicted of fish fraud
About This Project: Looting the Seas II
Key findings
1
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.
2
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.
3
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.
4
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.
5
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.
