Greece's Fish Farms Are Feeding You—and Poisoning the Planet

Greece's aquaculture industry is booming, but a growing body of investigative reporting reveals a dark chain of destruction that stretches from the Mediterranean to West Africa. The Hellenic Aquaculture Producers Organization met in Athens in May with the European Commissioner for Fisheries to promote fish farming as the future of sustainable food security [259810]. But an international investigation by The Outlaw Ocean Project suggests the industry's problems start far from Greek shores—and leave a trail of environmental ruin and human suffering in their wake [259810].

In western Greece, the Ambracian Gulf—a lifeline for Mediterranean communities for two thousand years—has become an industrial graveyard. The investigation points directly to fish farming as the cause of the gulf's decline. Beaches along the gulf's northern coast that were once full of life now tell a different story of what has been lost [259808].

The farmed seafood sold worldwide depends on fishmeal and fish oil, most of which comes from Peru, the world's leading producer. These products are made from anchoveta, a small fish up to 20 centimeters long that lives in the moderately cold waters off the Peruvian and Chilean coasts. But El Niño—a climate pattern that periodically raises ocean temperatures and causes droughts and floods—is disrupting this supply, threatening the entire industry's foundation [259990].

The damage extends to West Africa, where fishmeal factories produce toxic air pollution and a noxious stench that coastal communities are forced to endure. These factories turn small fish into feed for farmed seafood sold across the globe, with local residents bearing the brunt of the pollution while the profits flow elsewhere [258116].

The human cost of the maritime industry is also coming into focus. In Palma de Mallorca, Spain, police arrested a businessman accused of exploiting a woman hired to work on his yacht. The victim, hired as a sailor and stewardess, says she was starved, beaten, and left with partial deafness after four months on board. She was owed €17,500 in wages but received only €480 [260018].

According to her statement to police, she often slept less than four hours a night, was given tasks beyond her abilities, and was sometimes fed only half a sandwich a day. She also reported physical attacks and degrading treatment. She suffered carbon monoxide poisoning from faulty equipment on the yacht, which caused temporary partial deafness [260018].

Unable to continue and with no hope of recovering her unpaid wages, she left the vessel, reported the abuse to police, and returned to her home country. The investigation was carried out by a special police unit that fights illegal immigration and document fraud. Officers also found that the yacht's automatic tracking system had been switched off and crew records were incomplete. The businessman was arrested earlier this week, and police have not released his name or details about his court case [260018].

Meanwhile, Greece is prosecuting two human rights defenders in a case that Human Rights Watch calls a politically motivated attack. The trial begins on October 6, 2026, on the island of Rhodes. The defendants are Panayote Dimitras, a Greek and founder of Greek Helsinki Monitor, and Tommy Olsen, a Norwegian and founder of Aegean Boat Report. Two Cameroonian asylum seekers face the same charges: "forming or joining for profit and by profession a criminal organization" to help migrants enter and stay in Greece. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison [256136].

The charges, filed in early 2023, relate to the activists' peaceful work informing Greek and international authorities about the locations of newly arrived migrants and asylum seekers. The goal was to help these people access Greece's asylum process and avoid being pushed back to Türkiye. For years, Dimitras and Olsen have documented abuses against migrants, including violent pushbacks by Greek authorities that the European Court of Human Rights has called "systematic" [256136].

On May 15, a Norwegian appeals court rejected Greece's request to extradite Olsen, finding that helping someone apply for asylum is not a crime under Norwegian law and is protected by international treaties. The court also warned that extradition could violate Olsen's right to free expression. Olsen still faces a European Arrest Warrant and risks arrest if he travels to Greece to defend himself. Dimitras, who lives in Greece, cannot leave the country [256136].

This case follows a pattern in Greece. Authorities have used criminal and administrative law to harass activists and organizations that defend migrants' rights. In January, a court on Lesbos acquitted 24 humanitarian workers of similar charges after a seven-year legal battle. Despite that acquittal, Greece has not changed course. In February, the government passed a migration law that makes NGO membership an aggravating factor in migration-related crimes, sometimes raising them to felonies with harsh penalties [256136].

In 2023, Mary Lawlor, then the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, reported to the UN Human Rights Council that lawyers, humanitarian workers, volunteers, and journalists working on migration in Greece faced "smear campaigns, a changing regulatory environment, threats and attacks, and the misuse of criminal law against them, to a shocking degree." She said the investigation against Dimitras and Olsen "strongly appears" to be arbitrary [256136].

"The Norwegian court firmly recognized that helping people present themselves to seek asylum is not a crime," said Eva Cossé, senior Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Greek authorities should take a cue from the court and end this farce by dropping the case and halting the weaponization of criminal law against human rights defenders" [256136].