About Looting the Seas

Looting the Seas is a two-year project by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists looking at the forces that are rapidly depleting the oceans of fish. This new installment in the series focuses on Spain, the most powerful fishing nation in a region where economies and fish stocks are in shambles.

An ICIJ team set out to investigate how Spain’s fishing industry wielded that power at home, in Brussels and overseas.

Reporters from Spain, Uruguay, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Belgium, Namibia and the United States dug through thousands of pages of scientific reports, court files, investigation reports and official correspondence. The team analyzed reams of subsidy data, employed DNA testing and conducted more than 200 interviews with politicians, fishermen, lobbyists, inspectors, prosecutors, economists and scientists.

A detailed methodology is included here.

Our media partners are The Sunday Times (UK), El País (Spain), EU Observer (Brussels), Huffington Post (US) and Trouw (The Netherlands)

The team:

Project Manager: Kate Willson

Editors: Marina Walker Guevara and Fredrik Laurin

Reporters: Mar Cabra, Marcos García Rey, John Grobler, Nicky Hager and Brigitte Alfter

Data Editor: David Donald

Data Analysis: David Cabo and Mar Cabra

Web: Sarah Whitmire

Video: Emma Schwartz

Graphics: Ajani Winston

To see a comprehensive list of foundations that support ICIJ, click here.