Russian shadow fleet

And if it's impossible to buy insurance, then you either run without insurance and start using fraudulent papers, or you self-insure, which creates its own problems if you don't have hard currency, or you basically just start creating fraudulent identities that make it look like you're insured and make it look like you're properly registered.

So it is the case, for example, that even though Russian Shadow Fleet ships aren't sanctioned by the UN, they will still use false flags, false registrations.

They'll still use questionable insurance documents or run without insurance.

And this creates problems for safety.

The second reason is that there is this presumption under international law that if a ship is on the high seas, you won't really interfere with it unless you have very specific legal reasons.

And so what we're finding is that unless you find a ship that is very easily and obviously out of compliance with, say, the requirement to have a valid flag, there's really not that much legal reason or legal ability for countries to interdict these ships.

It's why, for example, the US and the UK and other countries have only recently started interdicting Russian Shadow Fleet ships, because the costs of doing so are very high, especially in the high seas.

It's not particularly safe.