The fishing gear, comprised of a total of almost ten kilometers of monofilament sporting a necklace of 171 hooks, had captured seven yellowfin tuna, one marlin and a vulnerable juvenile silky shark when retrieved. One yellowfin tuna was still alive and could be released back into the sea.

Longlines are regularly used in the South Pacific to target tuna but are sometimes also deployed to catch sharks for their fins. They are controversial because they are indiscriminate in their killing, unable to differentiate between the targeted species and juvenile, vulnerable or endangered marine wildlife.

One end of each of the longlines had been severed with a knife, giving the Tuvalu Police Service cause to believe that it had been cut by the crew of the fishing vessel in a bid to destroy evidence.

The fishing buoys that suspended the longline were detected approximately 14 nautical miles inside of the waters of Tuvalu and had been deployed by a fishing vessel—named Li Hung No. 666—that has been operating inside of a High Seas corridor between the maritime domain of Tuvalu and that of neighboring Tokelau, a territory of New Zealand. The High Seas is largely an unregulated area of international waters that is outside of any one country’s national jurisdiction.

Li Hung No. 666 has a long history of ‘dark vessel activity’, meaning that there are transmission gaps when reviewing the electronic track line available through its automatic identification system (AIS), a mandatory location transponder. These gaps often occur close to where the maritime borders of countries—where the vessel does not have a fishing license—meet High Seas pockets often exploited by lawless actors.

The confiscated fishing gear has been handed over to the Tuvalu Police Service in the capital of Funafuti, maintaining the chain of custody of evidence as authorities explore legal options for bringing Li Hung No. 666 to justice.

Since April 2024, the Sea Shepherd vessel Allankay has been patrolling the waters of Tuvalu with five ship riders from the Tuvalu Police Service Maritime Wing stationed on board with the authority to board, inspect and arrest vessels operating in violation of the laws of Tuvalu. Sea Shepherd Global was invited to Tuvalu after the island nation’s lone offshore patrol boat was irreparably damaged when a cyclone hit the region in March 2023.

The Pacific Ocean has become a hotspot of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activity, with illegal fishing costing Pacific Island countries an estimated 600 million U.S. dollars annually, according to the Pacific Island Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA). Key to addressing IUU fishing, is the ability of national law enforcement agents to conduct inspections at sea.

Read more about Operation Tuvalu