Illegal fishing choking African waters

Lazarus Sauti

In many maritime regions of the world, illegal fishing has massively contributed to the depletion of fish stocks, especially in developing countries’ coastal waters, according to the World Ocean Review, an extensive report, dealing with the state of the world ocean, the interactions between the ocean and ecological, economical and socio-political conditions.

Illegal fishing threatens ocean ecosystems and sustainable fisheries; it violates conservation and management measures; and undermines domestic and international conservation and management efforts.

More so, it threatens food security. The Food and Agricultural Organisation, an agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger, says that globally fish provides about 3 billion people with almost 20 per cent of their intake of animal protein and 4.3 billion people with about 15 per cent of such protein.

Furthermore, countries are losing millions of dollars through illegal fishing; monies that can be effectively used to transform their economies. Sub-Saharan Africa is one region that is badly affected by this scourge that is not only choking waters but also hindering development.

Henry Neondo, Coordinator of the African Alliance of Rangeland Management and Development, recently said Sub-Saharan Africa loses close to USD1 billion annually due to illegal fishing in its highly polluted waters with the waters west of the continent being hardest hit with illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activity than any other region of the world.

Dr Andre Standing, criminologist with a focus on natural resource sectors and marine fisheries, notes: “Illegal fishing seems to thrive in countries where open and accountable governance is lacking.”

Standing adds that most countries in the African continent are often depicted as uniquely vulnerable to this cancer that is choking African waters. The problem of illegal fishing is also rampant in other continents, but as Standing states, countries within and across Africa are more vulnerable due to many reasons.

Sadly, illegal fishing is heightening many problems facing affected countries.

“… fish are becoming scarcer and more expensive, and the cost of commercial fishing is increasing. Unfortunately, as fish become less abundant, there is a trend in some countries for local fishermen to use more destructive and desperate means to sustain catches, such as the use of very fine meshes and even dynamite,” highlights Standing, adding that “human impacts have destroyed an estimated 20 per cent of mangroves and 30 per cent of sea grass beds and threaten 60 per cent of the world’s coral reefs-a major source of income for some 850 million people.

“Land based human activities have also resulted in more than 500 oxygen-poor dead zones, which cover an estimated 245, 000 square kilometres of coastal zones.”

Sharing same views, Beth Lowell of Oceana, the largest international organisation focused solely on ocean conservation, says: “Illegal fishing cheats seafood consumers and hurts honest fishermen and businesses that play by the rules.”

Accordingly, African governments should do something to arrest illegal fishing and save African waters from choking. Improving governance through networks involving Public-Private Partnerships or with the collaboration of community organisations is, therefore, crucial to combat illegal fishing in countries within and across the African continent.

Co-Chair of the Global Ocean Commission, an independent international commission addressing the principal threats to the high seas, and former president of Costa Rica, Jose Maria Figueres, calls for integrated governance.

“The Oceans are in a ‘state of failure’ and therefore need urgent integrated governance – systems, processes and behaviours by which countries lead, direct and control their services in order to achieve utmost objectives of arresting illegal fishing,” says Figueres.

Figueres adds that in fostering integrated governance, trans-national policing and investigations can be laborious and thwarted by poor communications, corruption and stifling bureaucracy.

“Instead of coming up with strong policies to halt illegal fishing, some countries protect culprits, especially when they are supplying processing factories and consumer markets with laundered fish,” asserts Standing, adding that “there is widespread suspicion that for some countries, not responding to illegal fishing may be convenient, particularly when the culprits are important domestic fishing companies who are supplying processing factories and consumer markets and are financed by politically important financial institutions.

“Indeed, for a long time criticism has been directed at Spanish authorities for not doing enough to inspect and report fish landings in their country originating from West Africa.

“The same apathy seems to be apparent in many Far Eastern countries where arrests and prosecutions of boats operating in foreign countries appear to be rare, if non-existent, despite widespread knowledge that so many Asian fishing boats are involved in illicit fishing practices abroad.”

States must therefore be responsible and work together to halt illegal fishing. A report by the Global Ocean Commission concurs: “Nation states need to work together to exert greater control on foreign flagged vessels to keep illegally caught fish out of the world’s markets.

Lowell agrees: “If we want to fight pirate fishing, we need to be able to track our seafood supply from boat to plate so we can keep illegally caught fish out of our markets and off of our dinner plates.”

Therefore, to effectively keep illegal fish out of markets and dinner plates, African governments should create environments that are less conducive to corruption – a cancer that is also fueling illegal fishing. Creating these environments is not an utmost solution for the African oceans but may be a vital condition to ensure fishing contributes to pro-poor development, improved government revenues and ultimately the conservation of Africa’s remarkable, but vulnerable marine ecosystems.

Frankly, the earth’s marine environment provides humanity with a number of important services, ranging from the air we breathe, to food security and storm protection. These in turn underpin lives and livelihoods around the globe, according to Prince Albert II of Monaco.

Accordingly, African governments, development players and international organisation should work together to combat illegal fishing. Working together cannot only help Africa to move quickly in combating illegal fishing but it can also change the nature of African workers and push the continent to new economic heights.