An armada of industrial fishing pirates has invaded the Southern Ocean to poach tens of thousands of tons of a fish species known as the Patagonian toothfish. These are not small scale vessels, but large modern ships equipped with efficient fish-finding technology to locate the ever-dwindling toothfish stocks. Processing facilities and large freezers enable the fish to be stored ready for transshipment to market

The threats facing marine life in the Southern Ocean are not unique. Globally marine life is at risk from overfishing. There are simply too many large-scale fishing vessels and not enough fish to satisfy the world's bloated fishing fleets. During the 1990s several United Nations meetings adopted resolutions calling on countries to reduce the size of their fishing fleets. Despite this, the size of the world's fishing fleet is actually increasing due to the lack of political will from governments to stop it.

Of the 3.5 million fishing vessels worldwide, only about 1.7% are classified as large-scale, industrial vessels, yet they take almost 60% of the global catch.