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Foreign fishing firms prowl West African waters

In the wake of COVID-19 outbreak and the continued border closure in ECOWAS, a new report has exposed systematic plunder of oceans by foreign fishing vessels and the Fishmeal and Fish Oil (FMFO) industries in West African region. TAIWO HASSAN reports

Indeed, illegal fishing in West African Coastal waters has been on the rise for sometimes following the penetrations of foreigners under the pretence of uneven implementation of international instruments for sustainable fisheries. A new report on the development by Greenpeace indicated that some fishing firms were trying to benefit from the COVID- 19 lockdown and border closure on.

Findings

Political Advisor for Ocean Campaign at Greenpeace Africa, Dr Aliou Ba, explained that government in Nigeria, Senegal, Mauritania and The Gambia had been carrying out emergency food distributions to local communities in the wake of the pandemic. Ba said that these countries’ involvement in emergency food distribution had enabled systematic plundering of the oceans by foreign fishing vessels and the Fishmeal and Fish Oil (FMFO) industries in the West African region.

He stated: “West Africa’s declining fish stocks should be managed and secured, first and foremost to feed people in the region, especially at a time of looming food insecurity, as well as a global biodiversity crisis.

“The world economy is in recession and the West African region is not spared. At the same time, the Fishmeal and Fish Oil industry is thriving, using local fish stocks to produce food for pets, pigs and fish in the aquaculture industry around Europe and Asia at the expense of vulnerable populations in West Africa. West African governments must work together to shut down these factories for good.”

The Greenpeace report, en-titled “Seasick: as COVID-19 locks down West Africa, its waters remain open to plunder,” is based on observations of fishing vessels and FMFO factories in Nigeria, Senegal, The Gambia and Mauritania from March 2020 until end July, a period in which COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns were introduced across West African countries. “Allowing the continued operation of fishmeal factories during the lockdown is really a problem because it impacts the supply of fish for local people and creates unfair competition between factories and female fish processors, who are impacted by restrictions,” said activist and member of Platform of Artisanal Players of Senegal’s Fisheries, PAPAS, Mor Mbengue.

Monitoring

Based on data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) used for vessels worldwide, Greenpeace’s research confirms that at least eight industrial fish ing vessels have been engaged in questionable activities in the observed period. All of them carry the Fu Yuan Yu name and were found to be displaying activities suggesting fishing in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Nigeria and others while it was impossible to verify whether they carried a license granted without following the right license procedure. In other cases, the vessels were seemingly making use of an old trick of disguising their location by manipulating their AIS data.

Shutting down

Greenpeace concluded in its report with a demand to shut down permanently the FMFO factories operating in West Africa except for the ones, which exclusively use trimmings. It further demands publication of the full list of vessels licensed to fish in all sub-regional fishery commission countries, an official status for women fish processors, as well as a reform of ECOWAS fishing licensing process to improve transparency and inclusiveness of the artisanal sector in the decisionmaking process.

Chinese connections

In Nigeria, the Nigerian Navy said that most culpable in the illegal and unreported fishing within the country’s territorial waters, were Chinese vessels, which stray into the area to fish illegally. The Nigerian Navy stated that this illegal fishing along the nation’s territorial waters was costing the economy about $70 million annually and 300,000 jobs, including damage to Nigeria’s fish populations.

FAO’s findings

Meanwhile, the FAO insinuated that Nigeria and others in ECOWAS urgently needed to implement transformational changes in fishery management and governance in a bid to shore up annual fishery production by 16.5 million tons and annual revenues from fishing by $32 billion.

The FAO in its report indicated that rebuilding of overfished stocks in Africa as a continent urgently needed to be reviewed with Nigeria expected to play a lead role because of its aquatic territorial waters. Particularly, the report explained that overfishing and uneven implementation of international instruments for sustainable fisheries had been a cause for concern for FAO, stressing that urgently implementing transformational change in fishery would have a positive economic impact on Nigeria and others economies in the continent.

It stated that one third of the world’s marine fish stocks were overfished today, compared to only 10 per cent in 1974. The report notes that despite some recent improvements in fisheries management and stock status in developed countries, the proportion of stocks fished within biologically sustainable levels has decreased significantly in developing countries. Moreover, some 30 per cent of countries still have a low or medium implementation record of the key international instruments combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and some 20 per cent of countries have a low or medium implementation record of the key instruments to promote access of small-scale fishers to productive resources, services and markets.

Last line

In the report, Greenpeace is calling on all governments in the ECOWAS region to adopt a sustainable regional management plan of fisheries, with an urgent focus on dwindling stocks.

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