Squid Jigging Fleet Explodes 35x in South Pacific as Catches Crater
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Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Overfishing in the South Pacific
Schneier on Security →The South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization governs 59 million square kilometers of high seas where regulation is structurally weak. Jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas) dominated this year’s negotiations as fleet expansion outstrips any meaningful stock assessment.
Squid-jigging vessels operating in SPRFMO waters jumped from 14 in 2000 to over 500 in 2025, nearly all Chinese-flagged. Reported catches collapsed from more than 1 million metric tons in 2014 to roughly 600,000 metric tons in 2024 — a classic signature of effort scaling up while a fishery quietly hollows out underneath it.
The post also serves as Schneier’s open thread for security stories he hasn’t separately covered.
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