FAO: Rising Illegal, Unregulated Fishing Threatening Food Security in W’Africa

Gilbert Ekugbe

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has stated that the rising Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing posed a threat to food security in West Africa.

The FAO’s Representative ad Interim, Ms. Binga Stephen-Tchicaya, said at the 23rd annual fishing committee in Liberia that the menace is also driving several species towards extinction.

Stephen-Tchicaya stated that current rates of extraction are driving several species towards extinction while jeopardising the livelihoods of local fishing communities across Senegal, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Mauritania.

The FAO’s representative identified some of the challenges that exist in West Africa’s fishing area of competence as ensuring that fisheries continue to contribute to food security and livelihoods for all, improving the management of shared and migratory stocks on the high seas, as well as in coastal sovereign waters, increase the resilience of coastal communities and ending illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

She said that all of these challenges are summarised as good fisheries management.

Drawing on a unique satellite tracking database from FishSpektrum, she said this report by ODI and porCausa presents new evidence of the scale and pattern of IUU fishing. It focuses on ‘reefers’ – large-scale commercial vessels receiving and freezing fish at sea – and the use of containers. It provides evidence of practices that undermine multilateral governance rules aimed at curtailing IUU fishing and promoting sustainable, legal practices.

According to her, the report identified pathways for countries in sub-Saharan Africa to move towards greater transparency and sustainable management of fisheries to prevent the irreversible depletion and possible extinction of species, and to preserve the marine ecosystems where the fishing activities take place.

She stated that transferring fish between ships at sea makes it harder to tell which fish are caught legally and which are not.

“This map developed by CartoDB tracks the movement of 35 reefers through western African waters in 2013. A high density of hotspots and an erratic track pattern highlight areas where transhipment (moving catches from small fishing boats to reefers) may be occurring.

“Greater investment in regional patrols to detect and deter illegal fishing would allow West Africa’s governments to follow up suspicious manoeuvres identified through ‘hot spot’ activity,” Stephen-Tchicaya said.

“The report calls on western Africa’s governments to follow the lead of Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire and ban transshipment in their waters. We recommend that ships caught engaging in IUU fishing should be blacklisted and prohibited from entering waters in the region,” she added.