By Planet Tracker

Between 2014 and 2020, fishing vessels responsible for an estimated 1% of global wild-catch volumes have been dismantled. In tonnage terms, 55% of them can be traced back to Russian companies. Half of these vessels were beached (i.e., deliberately laid ashore) and broken down in India or Bangladesh, with a dreadful environmental and human impact. Planet Tracker expects more beached fishing vessels in coming years, mainly due to the growing age of global fishing fleets, which ensures a low ‘stranded asset’ risk (obsolete vessels retired prematurely) in the fishing industry.

By conditioning funding to the implementation of strict decommissioning policies, investors and lenders can mitigate the environmental and human impact of the future growth in beached fishing vessels.

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