The Longest Chase

After reaching the Banzare bank in the Arctic Ocean, captain Peter Hammarstedt and the crew of his environmental campaigning ship «​Bob Barker​» embarked on a chase unlike any seen before.​​
By way of frequent flag changes, hidden ownership, false papers and helped along by antiquated regulations for stopping crime at sea, the trawler «​Thunder​» was able to continue its illegal fishing activity in ocean areas around Antarctica for more than 10 years making as much as ​£​5 million a year.
In 2013, Interpol put out a notice for the ship internationally, but still it took the environmental organisation Sea Shepherd to finally pin down the poachers in a desolate ocean area around Antarctica. For four consecutive months, «​Bob Barker​» followed in the wake of the notorious poaching trawler «​Thunder​»​​.​​
The hunt for «​Thunder​» has now been reported all over the world but the authors were the first to tell the story in a series of articles in the Norwegian newspaper Dagens N​æ​ringsliv. They followed the trail to the criminal kingpins in Spain, uncovered comprehensive fraud surrounding the ship​’​s papers and exposed how the vessel was used for rampant criminal activity at sea.​​

​«​Thunder​’​s​» story isn​’​t unique. In the Antarctic Ocean, the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean as well as the Pacific, tonnes of fish are caught illegally every day.
Illegal fishing is a crime without borders. This is the story of big money and powerful international crime syndicates.​​