Binding Instrument · Rules of Engagement

AE-LEG-0010 — Rules of Engagement

This instrument is the hard limit on what the League may do at sea. It binds every member of every crew on every operation, at every tier of the Intervention Doctrine. It is not advisory. An operation that cannot be conducted within these rules is an operation the League does not conduct.

Doc Control AE-LEG-0010 Revision A Effective 2091-02-09 Owner Legal & Ethics Approver Counsel · Admiralty Next Review 2092-02-09 Classification RESTRICTED // TIDEWATER-EYES-ONLY

The three absolutes — no exception, no tier, no order. No League operation may harm a person who can be spared; may damage a crewed structure in a way that risks lives or seaworthiness; or may injure the marine environment the League exists to defend. No authority within the League — not the Admiralty, not in extremis, not under any standing order — may waive these. An order to cross any of these lines is void on its face and must be refused (AE-LEG-0013 §4).

1. Purpose & Scope

1.1. These Rules of Engagement ("ROE") define the permitted and prohibited use of force across all four intervention tiers — Observe, Document, Disrupt, and Direct Action. They govern what may be targeted, by whom it may be authorised, the proportionality each tier demands, and the conditions under which an operation must abort.

1.2. The League acts by the ocean's mandate where law is absent or captured. That mandate is a reason to act, never a licence to act without limit. The League holds itself to a stricter code than the syndicates it fights precisely because nothing external compels it to. This instrument is that code.

1.3. The public arm — GreenSky Aquatics — fights in the open: courts, shareholders, press. The League acts where that fails. Nothing here authorises League action while a lawful remedy remains live and effective; escalation presumes the open channel has been exhausted or captured.

2. The Doctrine of Permitted Targets

2.1. League force is directed at capability, never at persons. We strike the means by which the harm is committed — the gear in the water, the propulsion that drags it, the ledgers that finance it — and we leave the crew their lives, their boat's seaworthiness, and a clear path off the water.

Class	Permitted Targets	Rationale
Gear	Nets, longlines, dredges, FADs, traps, set-lines in unlawful or closed waters	The instrument of the harm; removal stops the take directly
Propulsion & mobility	Fouling of screws, rudder restraint, anchoring, drift-immobilisation of an uncrewed or evacuated asset	Halts pursuit and prevents flight with evidence — without holing the hull
Ledgers & data	Manifests, transhipment records, VMS/AIS spoofing logs, financial trails	Evidence over force; the strongest blow is proof (AE-LEG-0011)
Shore infrastructure (Disrupt+)	Unattended illegal gear caches, abandoned ghost-gear, unmanned transhipment buoys	Capability denial with no person in the loop

3. The Doctrine of Prohibited Targets

3.1. The following are prohibited at every tier, under every authorisation, in every circumstance. They are restated from the absolutes above because their restatement is the discipline.

Persons. No crew member, observer, or bystander may be struck, boarded under threat, deprived of escape, or placed in foreseeable danger of drowning, exposure, or injury.
Crewed-structure integrity. No action may compromise the seaworthiness of a vessel with persons aboard, disable its safety/comms systems, or render it unable to make port.
The marine environment. No spill, no scuttling that releases fuel or cargo, no munition, no acoustic weapon harmful to marine life, no action that creates the harm we exist to prevent.
Cetaceans & protected fauna. Absolute non-captivity and non-harm (AE-LEG-0012).
Spectacle for its own sake. No action whose primary purpose is to be seen rather than to prevent harm or secure proof.

On becoming what we fight. The syndicates also believe their cause justifies their means; conviction is not the difference between us. The difference is that we constrain ourselves, log ourselves, and submit ourselves to review. Strip away the constraint and only the conviction remains — and a conviction without constraint is exactly the thing we hunt.

4. Proportionality

4.1. Force is bounded by the harm it prevents — never by anger, never by the value of the target, never by what the adversary "deserves." The least disruptive effective action is the mandatory action. If immobilising a screw ends the take, the net is not cut; if cutting the net ends the take, the vessel is not touched.

4.2. Proportionality is assessed against the ongoing or imminent harm, not past conduct. The League is not a punitive force. Where the harm has stopped and evidence is secured, the operation de-escalates.

5. Tier × Permitted-Action Matrix

5.1. The following matrix is authoritative. A crew may only take an action where its tier column shows ●. Actions shown ○ are reserved to a higher tier and require that tier's authorisation before they may be taken.

Action	Observe	Document	Disrupt	Direct Action
Shadow / station-keep, visual watch	●	●	●	●
Overt/covert evidence capture, hail, witness logging	○	●	●	●
Recover ghost-gear / unattended illegal gear	○	●	●	●
Foul propulsion of evacuated/uncrewed asset	○	○	●	●
Cut / disable actively-fishing illegal gear	○	○	●	●
Immobilise a crewed vessel's mobility (non-injurious)	○	○	○	●
Seize ledgers / data from an asset	○	○	○	●
Harm a person · breach hull integrity · injure the water	PROHIBITED — ALL TIERS

6. Authorisation

6.1. No tier is entered without cause logged and counter-signed up the ladder. Authorisation is recorded before the action, not reconstructed after it.

Tier	Authorising Authority	Pre-conditions	Record
Observe	Vessel Master	Tasking within standing patrol orders	Watch log
Document	Vessel Master + Operations watch	Reasonable belief of unlawful activity; evidence plan	Operation log + custody chain opened
Disrupt	Flotilla Commander (Operations)	Open remedy exhausted/captured; harm ongoing; environment-clear plan	Counter-signed disrupt order
Direct Action	Admiralty only	Named roster, abort criteria set, Counsel review on file	Admiralty order + Counsel sign-off, logged

Direct Action is Admiralty-reserved and non-delegable. No standing instruction, field exigency, or emergency posture authorises Direct Action below the Admiralty. Where contact with the Admiralty cannot be made, the operation does not escalate — it holds at Disrupt or it aborts.

7. Abort Criteria

7.1. The abort is sacred. Any crew member may call it; no member may override it. An operation aborts immediately upon any of the following:

Any action would foreseeably cross one of the three absolutes (§3).
A person enters foreseeable danger — overboard, injury, vessel distress — at which point the operation converts to rescue, which overrides all tasking.
The required authorisation cannot be confirmed for the tier in progress.
The marine environment is placed at risk by the action or the adversary's response to it.
Evidence integrity cannot be preserved without crossing a rule (force is never worth a tainted package — AE-LEG-0011).
The crew's own seaworthiness or safety is compromised.

Rescue overrides everything. The moment a life is at risk — adversary, bystander, or our own — the operation ceases and becomes a rescue. There is no tasking, no evidence, and no order that ranks above a person in the water.

8. Cross-References

← Legal & Ethics Intervention Doctrine → Evidence & Admissibility → Whistleblower & Disclosure → SOP AE-SOP-0312 →

9. Revision History

Rev	Date	Author	Summary of Change	Approved
A	2091-02-09	Counsel	Initial issue: tiered ROE, permitted/prohibited doctrine, matrix, abort criteria.	Counsel · Admiralty