Gabonese Navy and fishery officials perform an inspection in a Chinese fishing trawler. A vessel’s boarding is the culmination of hours of work at sea. The operation consists in intercepting the ship by using two small boats while it is actively fishing in order to gather valuable evidence of their activities.

When Operation Albacore started in 2016, the mission targeted mainly purse seiners to board and control. However, this year the team found mostly trawlers. Purse seiners left Gabonese waters earlier this year than the did in previous years due to the lack of tuna, which is an alarming signal of imbalances in the ocean’s biodiversity.

Gabonese Navy watches over a lengthy bridge inspection of a Chinese trawler. Fishery officials search for inconsistencies between the ship’s documents, permits, crew list, and the evidence found on board.

Thailanese crew shower on a trawler’s deck at sunset right after fishing and organizing the catch that Gabonese authorities overlooked during the entire operation. Some workers were as young as 18 years old.

Gabonese crew celebrate with the Israeli team aboard the M/Y Bob Barker after a successful boarding operation. Sea Shepherd Global has been partnering with a security company in Israel for the past six years. They provide training for the Gabonese on board, as well as security for the ship when patrolling the ocean and when transiting through piracy hot spots.

Gabonese crew climb up the ladder of the M/Y Bob Barker, a Sea Shepherd Global ship during a night training exercise. Each patrol lasts around three weeks at sea. Everytime, there is a new group of Gaboneses from the navy and fishery officials on board. The operation requires constant training to assure a good performance when facing a real life situation.

Fishermen organize and store trays of fish in one of the trawler’s freezers. With the multiple storage spaces available for use , they can be at sea collecting tons of fish for months.

Portrait of a Gabonese Navy inside a fishing trawler’s cargo hold during an inspection. This practice consists of opening multiple boxes to see the animal species the ship carries, making sure they don’t have any illegal or endangered species.

Portrait of a young fisherman standing on top of different kinds of marine animals on the deck of a Chinese fishing trawler.

Different species are placed on deck to show the variety of juvenile bycatch from a single shrimp trawling activity. In this particular catch SSG and Gabonese authorities witnessed over thirty young rays not getting a chance to reproduce, wiping out an entire generation of rays from the ocean.

Purse seiners are very sophisticated and technologically advanced fishing vessels that can encircle entire schools of fish with a net hundreds of meters long. The net's bottom is drawn shut to prevent the fish from fleeing. A crane is employed to scoop the entrapped fish out of the water and release it onto the ship's deck. This method often results in capturing dolphins, turtles, sharks, whales and other endangered species.

A fisherman measures the length of a shark on deck captured as bycatch. In 2021, Gabonese Minister Manganga-Moussavou revoked the license of a European-owned fishing purse seiner that refused repeated requests to release two humpback whales that were inevitably caught in a net set for tuna.

Gabonese Navy stand inside a shrimp fishing trawler during an inspection. In 2021, the Gabonese authorities arrested a vessel that estimated 0.2% shrimp to 99.8% bycatch, while an average ratio of bycatch is 9% shrimp to 91% bycatch.

Fishermen wash over trays of fish in a Chinese trawler. The process involves cleaning the catch from squid ink and other fluids before storing and freezing the fish.

Fishing trawler’s crew separate catch from bycatch into trays before weighing and washing the fish from squid ink. The ship’s deck turns black every time a fresh catch is hauled aboard.

A Gabonese fishery inspector floats in the open water during a practical sea survival training. Often in between boardings, the Sea Shepherd Global and Gabonese crews perform safety workshops and training to prepare for potential emergencies at sea.

The trawler’s crew and Gabonese Navy look into the ship’s freezer at boxes stuffed with fresh shrimp. In 2021, Minister Maganga-Moussavou decided to suspend the entire shrimp fishery to allow the marine ecosystem to recover. However, shrimp trawlers now work using a ‘scientific license’ to bypass the restrictions.

Gabonese fishery officials stand inside a freezing cargo hold while requesting a young fisherman to move and open boxes.

One of many dead fish covered in squid ink lays on a net on a trawler’s deck.

Trays of catch lay on deck in a fish storage area.