Midnight alert from U.S. intelligence
At midnight on Friday, August 24, 1979, U.S. diplomacy issued a confidential alert from the Office of Oceanic, Environmental, and International Scientific Affairs (OES). The encrypted telegram, sent under the signature of then Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher—who would later become a right-hand man to presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton—was dispatched on an urgent basis to the diplomatic missions in Madrid and Durban. North American fishing intelligence sought to dismantle a covert commercial network operating outside the directives of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), using the logistics infrastructure of the Port of Las Palmas as the hub of its clandestine operations in the Atlantic.
False front at South African shipyards
The document, now declassified, focuses on two vessels from South Africa, the Susan and the Theresa. Originally built as whalers, both ships had been formally converted into fishing trawlers at Durban shipyards to evade international controls. Reports confirmed that the vessels remained moored at a South African port due to a sudden increase in fishing license fees imposed by Canary authorities. Washington suspected that the change of flag and the alleged fishing activity were a front to restart the mass hunt for marine mammals from the Muelle de La Luz.
Corporate network and an Asian destination
The State Department’s inquiries linked the ownership of the Susan and the Theresa to the ship-owning group behind the Sierra, the most notorious pirate whaler of the era. Behind the operation stood a network of front companies led by Sierra Fishing Company, registered in Panama but controlled through fiduciary structures in Liechtenstein. Operational management of the fleet pointed to Norwegian shipping magnate Andrew M. Behr and the company A/S Vestfold, while distribution of frozen cargo was arranged through contracts with Japanese fishing giant Taiyo Gyogyo (Maruha Nichiro).
Logistical support at the Port of La Luz
This network operated without a regulated flag from Gran Canaria’s capital, relying on Basque capital consignment agencies such as Consulmar to process calls, provisioning, and refueling. The fleet leveraged the archipelago’s geographical position and the lack of supervision over port unloading to supply whale meat to the Asian market. Washington asked the embassy in Madrid to determine whether the higher permit costs in the Canaries reflected a deliberate effort by local authorities to curb maritime piracy or whether it was a restructuring of port fees.
Covert Atlantic operations
The telegram called for information on the operations of the Cape Fisher, a fourth suspected vessel for capturing marine mammals in Spain and Portugal’s jurisdictional waters. International alerts indicated the ship worked in coordination with shore-based whaling stations in the Peninsula and the Canary Islands, using Las Palmas as a blind spot for refueling, supplies, and the transfer of cargo at sea.
Geopolitical tensions and declassification
The text details the complex web of flags of convenience, corporate arrangements, and unscrupulous shipowners that turned the Canary Islands into a key hub for unregulated fishing traffic in the late 1970s. The declassification of the document by archivist Sheryl P. Walter brings to light geopolitical tensions and the use of intelligence diplomacy to stop the illegal business in the Mid-Atlantic.
The entry Las empresa pantalla y las navieras que EE.UU vigiló de cerca en Canarias en la Guerra Fría was first published on canarymaritime.com.
