How to read this project
Strong claims.
Visible evidence.
A case should tell you what happened, who says so, what was decided and what is still unknown.
Two questions, not one
What conduct is established? A court decision, regulator finding, investigative allegation and observed activity have different meanings.
What is the state connection? Ownership, a subsidy, official intervention and operational direction are different relationships. Chinese nationality or an ethnic identity does not establish a state role or wrongdoing.
Evidence labels
- Court judgment / guilty pleas: a judicial record establishes the stated outcome. Read the date, offense and any later appeal.
- Sanctions / administrative finding: a government imposed or ordered a measure under its own authority. This is not automatically a criminal conviction.
- Official enforcement: an authority describes an incident or action. An investigation or capture order is not a final verdict.
- Investigative reporting / reported allegations: attributed findings from the named reporter or organization. The source, corroboration and responses matter.
- Context: data or policy that helps interpret cases. It is not an offender list.
- Disputed attribution: an important relationship is contested. The dispute stays visible.
Three shortcuts this research does not take
A gap is not an offense. AIS signals are incomplete and can be difficult to interpret. Modeled fishing, an encounter or a transmission gap is not direct proof of a particular illegal act.2728
A flag is not a verdict. A legitimate change of flag or foreign beneficial owner must not be confused with fraudulent registration.25
A death is not automatically a homicide or trafficking finding. Worker records deserve follow-up, while causes and responsibility require evidence. Forced labor involves specific conditions of coercion and involuntariness.0729
Time and identity
Event dates, source dates and review dates remain separate. An older registry entry does not certify current ownership. Names and AIS identities can change, while a single hull may appear under several labels. Profiles retain stable identifiers where established and explicitly identify gaps.
The fleet explorer is a dated extraction of OFAC’s SDN list: type “vessel” and program “GLOMAG.” Its 157 entries are not the entire Chinese fleet. The listed flag and entity connection are OFAC’s recorded values, not an independent current registry or geographic-position check.38
Sources, responses and corrections
Material findings link to the original source register. Government allegations are not upgraded to judgments; company responses are identified as party statements. Copies or summaries of the same reporting are not independent corroboration. This collection is public-source synthesis, not interviews conducted by this project.
Where a later record changes an outcome, the case timeline should retain the earlier event and explain the change. A useful correction identifies the file, the precise claim, the relevant date and the supporting document.
Send corrections and supporting source links to support@oceanaccountability.com.
Scope and gaps
The Americas are the center of the project. Asian material is labeled as a direct connection or a comparison. Several current corporate identities, compensation outcomes and cargo-to-buyer links remain unresolved. Those gaps are disclosed in individual files; missing evidence is not filled with an assumption.
Story artwork
Story images are original AI-generated illustrations created for Ocean Accountability. They depict generic maritime settings and working environments, not the actual named vessels, people, facilities or incidents. They are not documentary photographs, reconstructions or evidence. Each image is labeled, and factual findings are supported by the linked records—not by the artwork.
Map and visual methods
The map uses Natural Earth boundaries through World Atlas. Markers represent approximate case geography, not tracked vessel positions, EEZ boundaries or disputed maritime claims. Relationship displays represent only the dated link described beside them.
Natural Earth public-domain terms ↗ · World Atlas provenance ↗