Unlawful fishing destroys maritime habitats and threatens species living at sea. An EU-funded venture is helping authorities to crack down on these operations by building the world’s very first seabird ocean-surveillance program. © Weimerskirch, 2016 The world’s oceans protect much more than 350 million sq. kilometres of the earth’s floor. In their most remote places lurk an mysterious quantity of ‘dark vessels’ – fishing boats that have turned off their transponders so that they can carry out unlawful fishing undetected. This practice is a significant threat to the maritime environment. Unlawful fisheries deplete fish stocks, drastically affecting regional economies and maritime habitats. Unregulated boats usually use unlawful prolonged-line fishing approaches…