This article was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

A dead whale shark on the deck of a squid vessel—this animal was later dumped overboard. Environmental Justice Foundation

Former crew members on squid fishing expeditions report environmental destruction and labor abuses, due to a regulatory vacuum.

While their dazzling bright lights are visible from space, much of the global squid fleet operates in total darkness.

Hundreds of former Indonesian and Filipino crew members working onboard squid ships have exposed widespread environmental crimes and human rights abuses on the high seas every day, according to a new report by the nonprofit Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF).

The report focuses on three unregulated regions — the Northwest Indian Ocean, the Southeast Pacific, and the Southwest Atlantic — which collectively supply over 60 percent of the planet’s squid.

“What we have uncovered through these investigations reveals a…