The world’s oceans are facing an unprecedented crisis, with rampant unsustainable fishing by some distant-water fishing fleets depleting marine resources and devastating coastal communities. It is more important than ever to understand who is behind these unsustainable practices, and what is the impact on more vulnerable countries.

As part of the UN Development Programme’s Ocean Innovation Challenge, this project by ODI's Global Risks and Resilience programme aims to address a fundamental data gap related to distant-water fishing, and help inform sustainable fisheries policies in some of the most vulnerable fisheries in the world.

With its suite of reports and an open-access data repository on distant-water fishing practices in Ecuador, Ghana, Peru, the Philippines and Senegal, this project aims to inform sustainable fisheries policies in some of the countries which are the most vulnerable fisheries in the world, and where the impacts of unsustainable fishing affect people’s income, employment, and food security the hardest. The project helps policymakers make a business case for policy and enforcement reform.