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Somaliman
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Re: Somalia loses $500 million annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by Somaliman » 14 Nov 2021, 08:26

The coastguards of Galmudug Federal State, Somalia, have intercepted and apprehended a Chinese vessel fishing illegally in Somali waters, with 17 fishers from China, Indonesia, and India on board. The coastguards said that they had been tracking this vessel.....








https://www.allbanaadir.org/?p=203332

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Re: Somalia loses $500 million annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 27 Nov 2021, 14:15

Africa doesn’t reap the rewards of its $24 billion marine fisheries industry


In Africa, the fisheries and aquaculture sector employs about 12.3 million people, but industrial fishing threatens their livelihoods.

By Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood & Edward H. Allison

Published November 22, 2021

The African marine fisheries sector is huge. It’s valued at more than US$24 billion per year.

The sector is comprised of two main players. One is the continent’s artisanal or small-scale fishers, a form of fishing conducted on small fishing boats by coastal communities. The other is industrial fisheries, including trawlers and distant water fishing fleets.

These vessels are sometimes owned by African nationals but mostly overseen by international fishing companies or as part of a joint venture. Fishing by non-African fleets is done through access agreements or licenses issued by African states.

Perhaps surprisingly to some, the small-scale fisheries make a greater contribution to the continent’s economy than their industrial counterparts. They’re also vital to the livelihoods and diets of millions of people. In Africa, the fisheries and aquaculture sector employs about 12.3 million people. Half of these are fishers, the rest work in fish processing and marketing, or fish farming. Their catch feeds millions.

Industrial fishing threatens the livelihoods of Africa’s small scale fisheries

But all is not well in Africa’s oceans. Distant water fleets are over-exploiting fish stocks through overfishing and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. This is because there’s limited domestic or regional capacity to monitor the activities of these trawlers and enforce existing laws.

It’s hard to provide exact data, because the actions of some of these fleets are unsanctioned, but it’s estimated that in west Africa, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is the equivalent of 40% to 65% of legally reported catch.

The marine fisheries sector is under threat due to these unsustainable rates of fishing, and also because of weak fisheries governance.

Some African states are trying to address the problems of unsustainable fishing through the introduction of new policies and management practices. In a recent paper, we reviewed four case studies of such measures, from Ghana, Liberia, Madagascar, and Somalia.

Our findings demonstrate two things. First, fisheries governance measures in Africa are largely constraining small-scale fishers, while failing to contain the industrial fisheries sector.

Second, despite a higher incidence of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in industrial fisheries than in small-scale fisheries, efforts to develop and regulate fisheries continue to advance the industrial sector. African states have continued to enter new agreements and issue new licenses to distant water fleets. They also fail to institute stringent measures to curb their illegal activities.

We argue that the small-scale fishing sector is better adapted to meet the continent’s nutritional and socioeconomic needs. States must therefore redirect efforts to govern fisheries towards regulating the industrial sector. They must also ensure small-scale fishers have priority access to nearshore fishing grounds and fish stocks.

Targeting artisanal fishers

We found that African governments are introducing measures that target small-scale fishers while maintaining a “business-as-usual” relationship with the industrial sector.

For instance, in Ghana, a “closed season” was introduced in 2015. This means fishing is prohibited in the period that the restriction is in place. The aim is to protect fish stocks.

According to the plan the industrial sector must observe a two months closed season, first implemented in 2016, while the artisanal sector observes a one month closure implemented in 2019. This has increased poverty and vulnerability within fishing communities because they are expected to stay at home without an alternative source of livelihood and with little to no support from the state.

Meanwhile, the government gave licenses to three new trawlers despite protests from the artisanal sector and NGOs. This ignored a moratorium on the licensing of new trawlers. It also happened despite a 2015 fisheries management plan flagging that the industrial sector was operating at an unsustainable level.

This makes it clear that the government’s interest isn’t to contain the activities of the industrial sector. Ghana’s measures instead target the most vulnerable, who are also the least able to resist and easiest to police.

Reduced fishing areas

Governments in Liberia, Madagascar, and Somalia, meanwhile, are reducing the fishing areas of small-scale fishers and enlarging access to industrial vessels. This is happening despite the need for conservation and limited capacity to monitor the activities of industrial vessels. Also, in some cases, agreements with the industrial fleets aren’t providing much in the form of economic return.

Liberia announced the reduction of fishing areas close to the shore (inshore) from six to three nautical miles for small-scale fisheries. This would halve the area that small-scale fisher folk have exclusive access to. Meanwhile, access to the area between four nautical miles and beyond was granted to industrial vessels from Senegal that are linked to distant water fleets from Spain.

In Madagascar and Somalia, the industrial fisheries sector is being expanded through access agreements and licenses to distant water fleets linked to the European Union and China. This is leading to a further decline of legally allocated operational ranges for artisanal fishers and an increased threat to their livelihoods.


A way forward

Small-scale fishers and their communities are already under tremendous pressure. They bear the burden of conservation policies, while being squeezed out by other sectors within the blue economy.

Catches and catch opportunities for local fishers have declined, conflicts increased, and fish processors and mongers, many of whom are women, are left with less fish to process and sell.

Fisheries policies and management practices as they stand will only worsen the situation. Coastal states should instead support small-scale fishers by adopting a unified social development approach to fisheries governance.

Such an approach is detailed in the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Voluntary Guidelines in Support of Small-scale Fisheries. The guidelines, created in 2015 with extensive input from fishfolk all over the world, recognize that multifaceted factors undermine livelihoods in fishing communities.

Some of these guidelines include: secure, equitable, and socio-culturally appropriate tenure rights to fishery resources, fishing areas, and adjacent land and forests; ensuring meaningful and informed participation of small-scale fishing communities in the whole decision-making process related to fishery resources; managing resources and allocate tenure rights responsibly; supporting social development and decent work; looking at fish workers along the entire value chain, from catching through processing to trading fish; promoting gender equality; and taking climate change and disaster risk into account.

By championing and empowering fishing communities in fisheries governance, the guidelines are a critical next step that African states and their development partners should invest in implementing. They are already signatories to them.

African governments must also address the impacts of the industrial fisheries. This can happen through, among other things, greater monitoring and the introduction of no fishing zones for trawlers, to allow full recovery and protection of species.

States must put sustainability before profitability. This entails building collaborative initiatives that safeguard the social, economic, and environmental contributions of their natural resources.

Africa could learn a lesson from the Pacific Tuna Forum Fisheries Agency on how to form alliances to negotiate access as a bloc (for instance through the African Union) to balance power over agreements with distant fishing fleets, and place outcomes more equitably in the hands of African citizens.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Sign up to the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief here for news and analysis on African business, tech, and innovation in your inbox.

https://qz.com/africa/2092998/who-benef ... s-industry

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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 07 Dec 2021, 01:47

An estimated $1.5 billion worth of seafood is being stolen from Somali waters each year.

As I have said many times before, without plundering Somalia's vast coastline, there would be a seafood shortage in the European Union countries, Somalia's vast coastline plays a vital role in European's economy and Europe's fishing industry as the majority of the seafood stolen from Somalia ends up on the plates of European countries, It's a fact not fiction.







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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 12 Dec 2021, 17:28



The recent influx of Chinese fishing vessels in Somalia has resulted in abuse claims by Indonesian crew members hired to work on Chinese trawlers.
In August, four Indonesian workers jumped from a Chinese fishing vessel into Somali waters after they said they were beaten and starved. Three of them floated in the ocean for hours until they were picked up by the same boat.
While that escape attempt was unsuccessful, Tewuh and 11 other Indonesians were repatriated by the ship’s owner on August 28 following pressure from DFW, the Environmental Justice Foundation, the International Justice Mission and the Somali and Indonesian governments. Such workers were paid between US$350 and US$400 a month.

“I will never, ever work on a ship again,” Tewuh told This Week in Asia as he recounted his ordeal, which ended soon after his escape attempt following an intervention by industry watchdogs and the Indonesian and Somali governments.

Tewuh recalled how he had worked for months without pay, “often for 24 hours at a time with no sleep and little food” after signing a one-year contract to work aboard ships belonging to the Chinese Liao Dong Yu fleet.

The first fatal accident he saw came in July 2020, when he and his fellow crew members had just finished a 24 hour shift with no sleep. They were eating their lunch when a bell rang to call them back to the deck to haul up the trawler net.

“The net was very heavy as it had dragged up a lot of sand along with the fish. When we hauled it up, the chain snapped and the trawler net hit a Chinese crewman named Zhou Hsun Wei,” said Tewuh in a phone interview from North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

It knocked Zhou into the sea. His body was not discovered until five hours later, when it was hauled up in the net of another fishing boat.

“The net was very heavy as it had dragged up a lot of sand along with the fish. When we hauled it up,
China is not only stealing Somalia’s marine fisheries resources but it is, at the same time, also destroying coral reefs.

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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 12 Dec 2021, 23:31

Since the Somali government has granted fishing licenses to 51 Chinese vessels to exploit tuna and tuna-like species off its coast in return for licensing fees, there is an increasing trend of Chinese fishing vessels operating illegally in the Somali sea, Besides Chinese vessels, there are thousands of other foreign vessels fishing illegally in Somali waters as well, According to available information.

Clearly, Somalia's coast is a money making machine.

The Yellowfin is of great economic importance globally and is an important source of food as its meat is rich in omega-3, and has an abundance of minerals, proteins and vitamin B12.

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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 04 Jan 2022, 20:28

An estimated potential revenue loss of between 1.5 billion and 2 billion US dollars in 2021 due to theft.

According to fisheries ecologists, From 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021 alone, Somalia lost an estimated between 1.5 billion and 2 billion US dollars of potential revenue through the illegal fishing of tuna, lobsters, shrimps, swordfish, sardines etc off its waters. Africa's richest waters.

The major beneficiaries were

The European Union Countries, particularly France and Spain
China
Taiwan
Iran
Japan
South Korea
Thailand
Pakistan
The United Arab Emirate
India
The United Kingdom
Sri Lanka
Yemen

And many other countries.

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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 07 Jan 2022, 15:46

France alone, which base fleets in the Seychelles port steals €204 million worth of fish from Somalia every six months.

Yvon Riva, Le président d'Orthongel, organisation de producteurs regroupant tous les armateurs pratiquant la capture de thon tropical.










Alain Fonteneau of the French Research Institute for Development (IRP) warned the European Commission Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, He said urgent global action needed to stop the plunder of Somali marine resources. In other words, We must stop stealing from Somalia.



Last edited by AbyssiniaLady on 07 Jan 2022, 20:30, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 07 Jan 2022, 19:58

Great Blue Wall’ aims to ward off looming threats to western Indian Ocean

by Malavika Vyawahare on 6 January 2022




Ten countries in the western Indian Ocean are banding together to create a network of marine conservation areas under the banner of the Great Blue Wall.

The idea is to push through conservation areas, including those that straddle national boundaries, to bridge the gap between how much of the ocean is protected and how much needs to be secured. A recent assessment revealed the cost of failing to do so: coral reefs in the region are at high risk of collapsing in the next 50 years.

The Great Blue Wall initiative, launched in November, aims to promote transboundary cooperation between 10 nations: Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania and France, whose overseas department of La Réunion is in the Indian Ocean.

https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/great ... dian-ocean

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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 20 Jan 2022, 02:23

As reported by The South China Morning Post, The Chinese ambassador to Somalia, Fei Shengchao, has dismissed reports that Chinese companies were engaged in illegal fishing in Somali territorial waters, adding that China fully respects the country's sovereignty.

  • "Fishing cooperation is based on mutual agreement. It contributes millions of dollars to Somalia with no strings at all. There are those who don't want to see a penny paid to Somalia and keep muddying the water to 'fish' for themselves," Fei tweeted on December 27.

Well, there is no doubt that Somalia-China fisheries agreement benefit Somalia, however, those benefits do not outweigh the enormous profits that Chinese fishing vessels make from the fisheries nor the impact of such intensive unreported, and unregulated fishing on the Somali marine resources, Moreover, the ambassador is lying, under the cover of night, hundreds of Chinese fishing fleets are illegally fishing in Somali waters, But I totally agree with him that European thieves don't want to see a penny paid to Somalia and keep muddying the water to 'fish' for themselves, Europeans are using counter-piracy missions as a pretext to keep stealing Somalia's coastal resources, they are actually playing the trick of a thief crying stop the thief.


The value of the fish caught in every couple of months by the Chinese, the European Union and the United Arab Emirates fishing fleets in Somali waters is sometimes equal to the price of Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building in Dubai.


These Chinese tuna fishing fleets pictures were taken in Somalia Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) not long ago by the award-winning photographer Abbie Trayler-Smith.





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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 27 Feb 2022, 11:25

JKIA police seize Sh35 million (309.744,89 United States Dollar) fish from Somalia bound for China

Thursday, February 24, 2022


Passengers at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Terminal 1A for International arrival in this file picture.


Over 5.5 tonnes of fish valued at Sh35 million (309.744,89 United States Dollar) was seized yesterday at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) while in transit to China.



Weida Investment Ltd, the firm exporting the fish, lacked an export permit from the fisheries department.

Two Chinese nationals working for the firm were arrested and detained pending their appearance in court today.


https://nation.africa/kenya/news/jkia-p ... na-3728300

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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 27 Feb 2022, 14:37

Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, South Koreans, Taiwanese, Iranians, South Asians and Arabs are illegally entering Somali waters and brazenly reaping valuable fish in unprecedented numbers, Chinese fishing vessels are now flying Somali flag, this vessel was transporting seafood and left Somali sea for China.


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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 14 Mar 2022, 06:14

The Yemeni fishermen risking everything to feed their families

Hundreds of fishermen have been killed or injured at sea since the war began. Those left are forced to sail further - and risk even more



Yemeni fishermen moor their boat in Aden after fishing off the coast of Yemen's southern port city (AFP)


By MEE correspondent in Aden, Yemen
Published date: 13 March 2022 09:24 UTC |


Catching fish for a living in Yemen isn’t only about jumping in a boat and throwing a net into the sea. You need to also say goodbye to your family and prepare them for the fact that they might never see you again.

Because what was once a fairly routine occupation has, since war started in 2014, often become a matter of life and death.

This has little to do with storms or treacherous currents at sea, but rather the fact that after the Saudi-led coalition declared most of Yemen's territorial waters a conflict zone, fishermen have frequently been fired upon and killed when attempting to work there.

As of August 2019, at least 334 fishermen had been reported killed or injured since 2015, according to statistics from Yemen's fisheries authority. Others had been arrested and had their boats seized, while some were now detained in Saudi-run prisons in Yemen.

“We are allowed to fish in specific areas near to the beach," Ahmed Futaih, a fisherman in his 40s from Aden city, told Middle East Eye.

"But when we try to fish in deeper areas, where there are a lot of fish, Apache helicopters chase us and the fighters shoot at us or their military boats arrest us and seize our boats.

"One of my colleagues was arrested by the Saudi-led coalition and they seized his boat. They only released him after he signed papers saying that he would not fish in the banned areas again.”

Local reports estimate that of Yemen's approximate 100,000 fishermen, since 2015 over a third (37,000) have quit and thus lost their income.

This in one of the world's poorest countries, where the war has resulted in tens of thousands of people living in famine-like conditions and which has been declared by the United Nations as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.


Driven further out to sea (to Somali sea)

Desperate to continue earning a living and feeding their family, some fishermen, such as Futaih, have been forced to go out far beyond Yemen's territorial waters and head for Somalia, where there are plentiful fish stocks.

There they are safe from the coalition's bullets and punishment, but not from other hazards.
“Many fishermen decided not to continue in this dangerous job and they went to look for an alternative," Futaih told MEE. "But I don’t have any other profession to help me to provide for my 11 family members.

“Now, I fish in the allowed Yemeni waters and sometimes I go to Somali waters. When Somali coastguards arrest us, they seize all our fish and take our boats and sometimes they shoot at us when we try to flee.”


Yemeni fishermen sell their catch at a market amid spiralling prices, in the southern port city of Aden on 28 September 2021 (AFP)


Futaih said that the Yemeni fishermen had built a relationship with their Somali counterparts and that they sometimes worked together, dividing the catch between them. The Somali fishermen often had sympathy for their Yemeni colleagues, he added.

“They can be helpful towards Yemeni fishermen and allow us to fish in Somalia's waters, but we need to pay fees,” Futaih said. “But some of us can’t afford the fees, so we have to fish illegally”.

Futaih said that it costs them more time and fuel to sail to Somalia (whose nearest coastline is 200kms from Aden), but that apart from the costs, the main danger was being spotted by the Somali coastguard.

“When we try to flee from the Somali coastguards, they shoot at us but usually we manage to escape," Futaih told MEE. "But if they do manage to arrest us, that usually means going to prison.”

In March 2021, a Somali court fined 3o Yemeni fishermen $700 each and seized their boats for illegally fishing in the East African country's territorial waters. At the same time, the court released eight Yemeni children who had also been arrested on the seized boats.


'Otherwise I will starve to death'

Malik, a fisherman who inherited this job from his father, told MEE that while Yemen's waters may not be safe to fish in for Yemenis in small boats using traditional methods, large commercial fishing vessels from the Gulf states were trawling for fish every day.

“It isn’t safe for us who fish in the traditional way to fish in Yemen, but the Emirati and Saudi fishing vessels are allowed to dredge our fish from anywhere they want,” Malik said.

Malik was arrested by the Somali coastguard and released last year after they had seized his boat and he'd paid a fine to Somali authorities.

“Every day I go to sea, I tell my family that I might not return as the threats in the sea are great, either in Yemen or Djibouti or Somalia.

“I was fishing with other fishermen in the same boat and the Somali coastguard chased us and shot at us. We didn’t manage to flee so we surrendered to them,” Malik said.

Malik was sent to a Somali prison for a month and only released when he'd paid a fine.

“I don’t have a boat now, but I hire one and sail to fish in Yemeni waters or near Somalia's waters," Malik told MEE. "That’s my only choice, otherwise I will starve to death together with my wife and three children."

The Djibouti coastguard has also arrested Yemeni fishermen. The last time was in November 2021, when the six fishermen from Aden were detained.


Desperate situation

the family home. It was such a staple in the family's diet that her children would sometimes ask her for a break from it.

“Fish used to be very cheap and most families in Aden could easily afford it. But since 2015 prices have been increasing and it is now unaffordable,” she said. “Fish that used to cost 1,000 ($4) Yemeni riyal now costs YR10,000 ($40).”

Yasmin, a widow providing for four children, said that she hardly buys fish anymore as only rich families can afford it.

The port city of Aden lies in the Gulf of Aden and many of its residents work as fishermen. The fish they caught fed people far beyond Aden.

Saeed, a fisherman from Aden's waterfront Sira district, said that fish prices had risen dramatically because of the increasing dangers and challenges that Yemini fishermen now face.

“Fishermen have specific areas to fish in Yemeni waters where there are not enough fish and the fish aren’t the best kinds," he told MEE. "When they sail to Somalia or Djibouti or buy from African fishermen, that costs a lot, so fish in Aden isn’t as cheap as before.”

Saeed said that many fishermen had drowned as they headed directly into rough seas to avoid being chased by coastguards, either in Somalia or Yemen.

It is a desperate situation, which can only get worse as the war in Yemen enters its eighth year, with no sign that a resolution is near. Meanwhile, Yemen's fishermen find themselves in an impossible situation.

“In Yemen, the coalition shoots at us and in Somalia, it is the coastguard," Malik told MEE.

"So we only have two choices, and they are both difficult.”

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/yeme ... d-families

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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 03 Apr 2022, 16:33

Somalia: Minister of Fisheries and U.S Ambassador Discuss the Advancement of the Fishing Sector

22 MARCH 2022

Minister of Fisheries Abdullahi Bidhan held meeting on Tuesday with US Amb. to Somalia André in the capital Mogadishu.

They discussed the Ministry's efforts to advance the fishing sector in Somalia, U.S.-Somali cooperation to combat illegal, unreported, & unregulated fishing.

In a statement the U.S Embassy in Mogadishu said the Ambassador and the Minister also discussed the repercussions of the delayed elections in the country.

"Ambassador André had a productive meeting with @mrbidhaan today. They discussed @fisheriesSOM's efforts to advance the fishing sector in Somalia, U.S.-Somali cooperation to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and the negative impact of delayed elections." said the Embassy.

https://allafrica.com/stories/202203230212.html

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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 10 Apr 2022, 17:44

Publication Date 30-03-22



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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 18 May 2022, 11:50

Evidence of unauthorised fishing by EU vessels in Indian Ocean coastal states’ waters


May 16, 2022





A set of reports published today by Blue Marine Foundation have revealed evidence of unauthorised fishing on the part of EU vessels in the waters of several developing Indian Ocean coastal states. The reports – one undertaken by OceanMind and the other by Blue Marine and Kroll – highlight fishing activity on the part of Spanish and French-owned purse seine vessels in the waters of Somalia and India with no evidence of access agreements authorising the fishing. The report also highlights small amounts of reported catch in the Chagos Archipelago marine protected area and in Mozambique’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) where no vessels flagged to any EU country could have been authorised to fish.

The publication of the reports coincides with the start of the 26th Session of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) in Seychelles, where members of the regional fisheries management organisation are meeting to discuss new conservation and management measures for the region and its fish stocks. One such stock is Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna which has been overfished since 2015. Years of rampant overfishing has resulted in catches of yellowfin tuna now needing to be reduced by almost a third in order for the stock to recover by 2030. Despite this, the region’s most rapacious yellowfin harvester – the EU – is proposing that no further catch reductions be made this year, contrary to scientific advice.

In addition to the EU’s so-called Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs), which subsidise EU vessels to fish in the waters of third countries (often at a fraction of what it would otherwise cost), there also exist opaque and highly controversial private access agreements made between fishing companies and coastal state governments. Blue Marine, together with global investigations firm Kroll, has compared the fishing activity identified by OceanMind in the territorial waters of coastal states to an analysis of the access agreements (both public and private) that exist in the Western Indian Ocean.

This comparison has highlighted potential noncompliance with national and international regulations by Spanish-owned vessels which appear to have spent time fishing in the waters of both India and Somalia without authorisation. A source close to the Indian Head of Delegation confirmed that no permissions or licences were issued to any Spanish-flagged purse seine vessels. Another source with links to the Somali ministry of fisheries confirmed that no licences or permissions were granted to any purse seine vessels to operate in the Somali EEZ in 2017, 2018, 2019 or 2020, when fishing was identified. The generally opaque nature of access agreements raises additional questions around the compliance of these EU-owned fleets in the waters of several other coastal states, including Mozambique where no private agreements could have been legally issued because of the dormant SFPA in place.

Charles Clover, Executive Director of Blue Marine Foundation, said: “It’s outrageous that the EU, which prides itself on the transparency and accountability of its Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements, allows EU fishing operators to circumvent this process by negotiating their own private access agreements with third country governments, the details of which are hidden from the world. Worse still, there is evidence to suggest that some of these fleets are fishing in coastal states’ waters without any kind of authorisation and we call on the European Commission to investigate these instances as a matter of urgency.”

In addition to analysing reported fishing catch and effort in and around the boundaries of coastal states’ EEZs, the report also highlights widespread noncompliance with the regulations that govern the use of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) – an important safety tool that transmits a ship’s position. The report explains that Spanish-flagged purse seine vessels operating in the Western Indian Ocean “went dark” by switching off their AIS for an average of three quarters of the two-year study period. Importantly, the study found that significant fishing activity was undertaken without the associated use of AIS. This comes just weeks after an admission from a representative of prominent Spanish fishing association, AGAC, that AIS could indeed be switched off for commercial advantage. In addition to being inconsistent with EU law, going dark for commercial advantage also jeopardises crew safety.

This noncompliance with national and international law is taking place against the backdrop of relentless overfishing of tuna in the Indian Ocean, with the EU’s fleet being the number-one harvester of the overfished yellowfin stock. Given that the three species of tropical tuna are caught together by these industrial vessels, bigeye tuna is also now also subject to overfishing and even skipjack – the most abundant of the major commercial tuna species – has had its catch limit ignored for the last three years.

Jess Rattle, Head of Investigations at Blue Marine Foundation, said: “Decision makers must be led by science at this week’s meeting of the IOTC, rather than by greed, self-interest and short-term gain at the expense of the health of tuna stocks and the livelihoods and food security of coastal communities. We also need stricter compliance with existing laws and regulations, such as those pertaining to AIS use, and for the details of private access agreements to be made fully transparent and publicly accessible.”

A statement from Europêche, a European organisation of shipowners, fishermen and employers, can be read here.

Cover image: Alex Hofford/Greenpeace

https://www.bluemarinefoundation.com/20 ... tes-waters


Africa is not poor, Europeans trash are stealing its wealth!

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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 18 May 2022, 12:06

New reports by Oceanmind and Blue Marine Foundation.

May 16, 2022




According to Oceana, an ocean conservation NGO, Fishing vessels from European countries switch off their Automatic Identification Tracking System satellite to avoid detection while they engage in illegal fishing in Somali waters.




Somalia is not poor, Middle Easterners, Asians and Europeans are stealing its wealth!
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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 18 May 2022, 19:25

Regulation, Security Raise Hurdles for Chinese Companies in Somalia: Ambassador


by Cobus van Staden May, 16, 2022





https://chinaafricaproject.com/2022/05/ ... ambassador


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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 14 Jun 2022, 18:07

Russia isn’t alone in stealing food — the EU does it too

Evidence suggests the bloc’s fleets have been fishing without permission — and it’s time they stop.


According to an investigation using official data provided by Brussels to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission — an intergovernmental body responsible for managing the region’s tuna stocks — EU-owned fishing vessels appear to have been netting tuna from the waters of poorer nations in the Indian Ocean without permission for years | Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP via Getty Images - Indian woman



By Charles Clover June 4, 2022 2:10 am


Russia stands accused of weaponizing food supplies and of stealing grain from Ukraine in the occupied territories of the Donbas region.

But Russia isn’t alone in stealing food from vulnerable nations. Evidence suggests European Union fishing fleets have been doing this too — and for quite some time.


According to an investigation using official data provided by Brussels to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission — an intergovernmental body responsible for managing the region’s tuna stocks — EU-owned fishing vessels, mainly Spanish, appear to have been netting tuna from the waters of poorer nations in the Indian Ocean without permission for years.

A study commissioned from the marine analysts at OceanMind by the chief investigator of the charity I head, Blue Marine Foundation, found evidence suggesting EU fleets had been fishing in the waters of Somalia and India in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Sources close to the governments of Somalia and India say no fishing by these vessels was authorized, even under the notoriously shady private arrangements tuna companies can sometimes strike with developing nations. But in response to Blue Marine’s study, the Europêche fishing association flatly denied any EU vessels have been fishing in the waters of any developing country without prior agreement.

The probe also examined data from EU vessels’ automatic identification system (AIS), only to find that some EU fishing vessels had “gone dark” for most of the two-year study.

AIS is a requirement of EU regulations — and international maritime law —as a safety tool to prevent collisions. Even in parts of the Western Indian Ocean demarcated as “high risk” due of the threat of piracy, the best practice recommendation by marine authorities is that AIS remains on.

Blue Marine Foundation first reported this finding to the European Commission in 2019, but to no avail.


The EU’s heavily subsidized fleet has almost no ethical justification for fishing in the Indian Ocean at all, other than precedents established in colonial times. And it’s taking the largest percentage of catches, at a time when stocks are in serious trouble. But if the EU-owned fleets’ catch were left in the water, the Indian Ocean would actually be on the road to recovery. They should get out.

Read the whole article here
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-food ... ine-russia

AbyssiniaLady
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Re: Somalia loses $1.5 billion annually to foreign illegal fishing

Post by AbyssiniaLady » 13 Jul 2022, 16:36

Chinese officials meet to discuss fishing opportunities in Somalia

By Mark Godfrey July 13, 2022




Chinese officials and fishing industry executives have met to discuss opportunities in Somali waters for the country’s giant distant-water fleet. Several Chinese fishing firms are already operating in the region, targeting tuna and other species.

Fei Sheng Chao, China’s ambassador to Somalia, addressed the online meeting, which also featured Li Le Fu, the head of policy at the fisheries bureau of China’s Ministry of Agriculture; as well as Chen Xue Jian, secretary general of the China Distant Water Fisheries Association, an industry trade group that coordinates reporting of fishery firms international activities for the ministry.

The ambassador “stressed that Chinese fishing firms must abide by the laws and regulations, effective authorization, bilateral cooperation framework, and international law of China and Somalia in daily operations,” according to a statement from his office.

Fei also said his office had strengthened communication and improved relations between fishing enterprises and governments at all levels in Somalia as well as between “Chinese crews and foreign crews.”

Chinese vessels, as well as operators from Iran, have faced accusations of illegal fishing in Somali waters, and Chinese media has reported the country’s supply of fighter jets to Somalia was paid for in part by fishery access rights granted to Chinese state-controlled arms and aviation firm AVIC.

Responding in May 2022 to Somali media questions about Chinese fishing in Somali waters, ambassador Fei said “disinformation” by unnamed other countries had distorted the public’s understanding of the access deals signed between the two countries.

“I always have a very strong sense of being wronged by the people who actually accuse us, China, of illegal fishing, because when it comes to illegal fishing or any other illegal activities, no matter in fishing or any other areas, China is on the side of justice and on the side of law,” he said. “We strongly advise and encourage all Chinese fishing vessels to have the federal licenses, no matter whether they have the state licenses.”

In 2020, Somalia asked Iran for more information on fishing vessels flying its flag and operating in Somali waters. A 2020 report from Global Fishing Watch and Trygg Mat Tracking, based on data collected between January 2019 and April 2020, appears to show Iranian vessels operating without approval inside the exclusive economic zones of Somalia and Yemen.

Trygg Mat Tracking Executive Director Duncan Copeland said at the time the situation “is likely one of the largest illegal fishing operations occurring in the world.”

Photo courtesy of Somalia Ministry of Foreign Affairs

https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supp ... in-somalia

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