The United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has reported that rise in Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is at the centre of a crisis of food sustainability in West African coastal waters. Ms. Bintia Stephen-Tchicaya, an FAO Representative ad interim, made this known during the 23rd annual fishing committee in Liberia. Stephen-Tchicaya stated that current rates of extraction were driving several species towards extinction while jeopardising the livelihoods of local fishing communities across Senegal, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Mauritania.
She said nowhere is that cri- sis more visible than in western Africa. The FAO noted that the menace was threatening food security in the West African region in the area of fishing as the unauthorised business is driving several species towards extinction. The FAO Representative named some of the many 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 all of these challenges were summarised as good fisheries management. Drawing on a unique satellite tracking database from FishSpektrum, she said this report by ODI and porCausa presented 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 cur- tailing 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.
The FAO Representative 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 western 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.