What's wrong with having a big, efficient fishing ship? Are all the little guys really needed any more? Maybe work this like oil leases - you bid on exclusive fishing rights to a square, and only some squares are fished each year. Big ships are easy to track. They have AIS, and can be seen from orbit if they're not sending.
The costs of fishing are finding, catching and processing the fish. This boat might increase the efficiency of the last two and only marginally the first.
Increasing the stock of fish might reduce the costs of finding the fish.
Perhaps an exclusive lease of a fishing area would give boat owners an incentive to reduce fishing pressure, increase fish stocks and reduce the cost of finding the fish. Potentially outweighing the investment required to build a boat like this?
Let's not attribute to malice what is a result of dysfunctional government regulations with unintended consequences.
The seas are huge, but fisheries aren't. Seafood is actually getting pretty scarce, and fisheries don't scale link agriculture on land does. We have overfished the oceans and this is having dreadful ecological effects.
I agree I’d prefer 1-10 big ships for the whole region and then just put all your inspectors on those boats with the ability to impose heavy fines. The problem isn’t the ship is the tiny fines that are imposed for illegal activity
