Ownership, sanctions and shadow fleet

Who stands behind a one-ship company: corporate records, leaks databases, sanctions lists and the shadow fleet trackers.

The registered owner on a ship’s papers is usually a one-ship company. Finding who stands behind it means corporate records, leaks databases and sanctions lists, and the free sources here are the same ones the big platforms build on. The fishing lists sit at the bottom because illegal fishing uses the same tricks (reflagging, renaming, dark periods) and the same tools find it. Tracking data for fishing vessels is on the vessel tracking page.

Two cautions. Sanctions screening by name alone misses most ships; screen by IMO number. And a tool run by an advocacy group is a lead to confirm against the official list, not a finding.

Corporate and beneficial ownership

  • OpenCorporates · Freemium · OpenCorporates · The largest open database of companies and officers, with searches free on the web and the API and bulk data paid. Free API access is available to public-benefit projects on application.
  • GLEIF LEI search · Free · Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation · Legal entity identifiers with registered addresses and parent relationships for companies that have one. Good for banks, traders and larger shipowners.
  • ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database · Free · International Consortium of Investigative Journalists · Companies, officers and addresses from the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Pandora Papers and related leaks. The usual way into offshore shipowning structures.
  • OCCRP Aleph · Free account · Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project · Searchable archive of company registries, leaks and documents. Some collections are open only to journalists.

Sanctions lists and screening

  • OpenSanctions · Freemium (free for non-commercial use) · OpenSanctions · Consolidated sanctions and politically exposed person data from more than a hundred sources, with vessels as entities matched to IMO numbers, flag histories and shadow-fleet tags. Commercial use needs a licence.
  • OFAC Sanctions List Search · Free · US Treasury · The official search of US designations, including vessels by IMO number.
  • EU Sanctions Map · Free · European Union · Every EU sanctions regime with the legal acts and the listed persons, entities and vessels.
  • UK Sanctions List · Free · UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office · The UK’s consolidated designations, including ships specified under the Russia regime.
  • UN Security Council Consolidated List · Free · United Nations Security Council · All individuals, entities and vessels listed by the Council’s sanctions committees.
  • ArcNautical · Free · ArcNautical · Screens one IMO number against the OFAC, EU, UK and UN lists without an account, states which lists it could reach, and offers a keyless JSON endpoint. Launched in 2026; cross-check its result against OpenSanctions and the official lists.

Shadow fleet trackers

  • KSE Institute Shadow Fleet Tracker · Free · Kyiv School of Economics Institute · Monthly reports on Russian seaborne oil exports and the tankers carrying them. Reports and data downloads rather than a vessel search.
  • Rendezvous · Free account (early access, 2026-10) · Rendezvous, a non-profit foundation · An open platform on the Baltic shadow fleet whose tracker scores vessels with a calibrated machine-learning model over AIS silences, encounters, flag history and port calls, alongside commodity-flow data and maps of sensitive infrastructure. Early-stage, with deployments around the Gulf of Finland and the Kerch Strait; the technology page explains the method.
  • UANI tanker tracker · Free · United Against Nuclear Iran · A running list of several hundred tankers linked to Iranian oil. UANI is an advocacy group, so confirm against the official lists before you rely on an entry.

Fishing and IUU

  • Combined IUU Vessel List · Free · Trygg Mat Tracking · Every regional fisheries organisation’s list of vessels caught fishing illegally, merged with Interpol notices, with name and flag history, alerts and a spreadsheet download.
  • FAO Global Record · Free · UN Food and Agriculture Organization · The Global Record of Fishing Vessels, with a unique vessel identifier and quick search by IMO, MMSI or call sign.
  • WCPFC Record of Fishing Vessels · Free · Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission · Public search and CSV download of vessels authorised to fish in the western and central Pacific, with photos and the option to include deleted records.
  • IOTC vessel records · Free · Indian Ocean Tuna Commission · Authorised and IUU vessel lists for the Indian Ocean.
  • ICCAT Record of Vessels · Free · International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas · Authorised vessels and the Atlantic IUU list.

Last checked 2026-10-12.