Last spring, the Thunder, an alleged poaching vessel, met its end off the coast of São Tomé and sunk to its watery grave. The Thunder was allegedly part of an armada of fishing scallywags that cumulatively siphon billions of dollars a year from the global fishing economy and wreak untold damage on fisheries around the world. Now, recently released research suggests that, despite their nefarious intentions, many of these illegal vessels are still covered by marine insurance.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia found that many illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) vessels—aka pirate fishermen—are insured for third-party liability coverage even though they are named on many ocean watchdog lists. The findings, published this week in the journal