Corporate webs

MANILA, Philippines — Complex corporate structures behind the world’s industrial fishing fleets have been revealed in a landmark study that exposed who ultimately controls and profits from them.

Last year, ocean conservation group Oceana and researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela released the most comprehensive mapping to date of ownership of large-scale fishing fleets.

The study covered 6,962 vessels from an estimated global population of about 19,000, drawing data from commercial databases such as Orbis, which compile ownership details from flag registries and corporate filings.

These databases trace each vessel’s ownership from its registered operator up to the Global Ultimate Owner, or GUO — the highest corporate or individual entity that ultimately controls and benefits from it.

Alicor Panao, an Inquirer data scientist, said the research highlighted significant “country mismatches,” or instances when a vessel is flagged to one nation but the company that ultimately owns it is based in another.

In many cases, these mismatches show how corporate structures allow fishing activity to remain opaque and diffuse accountability in a world where 35.5% of fish stocks are “fished beyond sustainable limits.”