Note this excerpt from a recent story:
"Coastal waters could feed many more Africans, but need better protection"
Feb 18th 2012
BERBERA, FREETOWN AND MOMBASA | from the print edition
“MELITA SAMOILYS is a leading marine biologist. Since 2010 she has visited 72 coral reefs in east Africa. On only one did she see a shark. That is because so many black-tipped, white-tipped and grey sharks have been served up as shark fin soup, a delicacy in China.” “With the sharks almost gone, Chinese diners are demanding manta rays… as ingredients for their expensive banquet stews. Frank Pope, an Africa-based writer on oceans, says that the slow-breeding rays could be gone even sooner than the sharks they used to swim alongside on the glittering reefs.”
Click here to read the full article
In the recent Commentary on the “African land-grab” I noted, “The Tsunami-wave of neocolonialism is sweeping over sub-Saharan Africa’s precious resources…”
Today I want to draw attention to Asian and European fishing fleets sweeping the African continent’s ocean floors for fish resources, the basic daily food for millions of people living along the coastal regions of sub-Saharan Africa. Much of the fishing is being undertaken like a mining operation, to get the most out of each day’s catch. Many of the fishing trawlers stay out for months and meet up with self-contained “mother-ships” to transship their catch to Asia and Europe, while this food source a mainstay for the poverty stricken Africans is disappearing. Many African countries do not have a Coast Guard to patrol their waters, so any overfishing cannot be controlled. Even in countries that issue fishing permits with conditions, there is no way of controlling any illegal fishing practices.
A major concern was overfishing in the Indian Ocean region off the coast of Africa, a subject that had come up during my Senate Confirmation hearings. Large fishing fleets operating in these waters included trawlers from Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and several European Union countries. There were also reports of illegal overfishing in the Southern Arctic waters, and many long line fishing violations by the fishing trawlers. In addition illegally fished Patagonian toothfish (similar to the Chilean Sea bass) an endangered species, were being transshipped through Mauritius, a practice that had stopped in 2000. However claims persisted about on-going overfishing of the toothfish, along with tuna and other species by these fleets.
In 2002 in Mauritius, I visited a large tuna canning operation for the Princes brand, owned by the Japanese giant Mitsubishi Industries, whose Canadian manager had been in the canning industry for more than twenty-five years. His operation in Port Louis was clean and well run, processing 150 tons of tuna per day. He assured me only legally fished yellowtail and skipjack tuna, brought in by Japanese trawlers, were being processed. He was sensitive to the overfishing issue and advised me that ultimately limits would need to be established, so as not to deplete the fish in the targeted zones. In Seychelles the same year, I visited the Indian Ocean Tuna plant operated by H. J. Heinz Company, which had the capacity to process 500 tons of tuna a day. The manager shared his concerns also about possible overfishing of tuna in the region.
In Comoros, the abundant colonies of Grouper fish became extinct a number of years earlier; the government had little control over the offshore fishing fleets. As I travelled around the island of Grand Comore during my visit in 2002, I stopped by a small fishing village where several men, who appeared to be in their seventies and eighties, were hewing out a fishing boat from a tree trunk to which they would attach outriggers for stability. Most of the local fishing by Comorians, for their daily needs, was done using these handcrafted boats, a custom going back many centuries. The people in the Comoros islands depend on fish as a staple in their diets. Many of the foreign fishing fleets have encroached the close-in shoreline areas, mostly accessible by the local fisherman whose small dugouts need to be in sight of land, for fear of being swept out into the vast Indian Ocean.
I was delighted to read in the August 8, 2010 Military News Virginia Beach that five Maritime Civil Affairs crew members, while in Comoros rehabilitating a school building and a village water system, learned that local fishermen risked their lives daily fishing in the small wooden outrigger canoes—some being swept out to sea, while others lost their bearings—set about teaching many of them navigation and safety skills. Focusing on helping the fishermen, by the end of their deployment, they had trained six ministry officials so they could pass on the skills to other fishermen.
Most of the fishing, as noted, is done by Comorians for personal consumption and local sale, while the large Asian and European trawlers use the surrounding deep waters to voraciously extract the tuna and other varieties from these waters. Many of the fleets operate without having been granted fishing permits, or proper licensing. The ability to control the fishing activities of these fleets would provide the Comoros government with substantial needed revenue, and also give them better control over the fishing undertaken in their coastal and offshore waters. Comoros does not have the capability to undertake open sea patrols, or ship interdiction of violators. Comoros was promised help in setting up a Coast Guard program, with the U.S. donating several surplus boats as they did in Seychelles; and to provide training on ship interdiction. I had discussed this issue with the Pacific Command (PACOM) and brought it up on several occasions during Washington consultations. To date one small boat has been provided to cover the entire region surrounding the three island archipelago. At least one boat for each of the three islands is needed, and one larger open sea type, and regular training exercises, would go a long way in tracking ship traffic in the region, and contribute to the global war on terror.
The demand for all types of fish is rising around the world, as many countries cope with their own fishing grounds becoming depleted. That is why the regions in the Indian Ocean are so appealing to the Asian and European countries. In many cases says Andre Standing, a researcher into fisheries agreements in Africa, “it is not clear how much money is being paid for licenses or to whom”. Critics say “Africa’s failure to protect its ocean is political, the definition of a continent too weak to exert full control over its resources”. In addition “Scientists would like to see more sanctuaries, starting with a big area in northern Mozambique” the article notes. Andre Standing further proffers “Governments should impose a ban on industrial fishing in African waters for ten years, which would favour labour-intensive fishing from dhows (traditional sailing boats).”
Some of the instability in several African countries is the result of the foreign fishing fleets’ intrusion into their coastal fishing waters. In Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in northern Somalia, the piracy issue is the outgrowth of a pent-up frustration with the illegal fishing activities in Somali waters. Their armed protection led to attacks on vessels using the Mozambique Chanel. Soon piracy became more profitable than the meager results from fishing. In Nigeria fisherman have long been frustrated by the lack of controls over oil drilling operations which interfered with traditional fishing areas. Attacks against oil interests soon became endemic, and kidnapping became a business for these destitute former fishermen. As fishing grounds in Africa become less accessible we can expect to see more uprisings.
China recently entered into a fishing agreement with Mauritania, and reportedly is working with the countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea, and south along the west coast of Africa to obtain fishing rights. With the on-going ocean-grab in sub-Saharan Africa, the question is how long these waters can support this fishing activity. And can these waters continue to feed the two billion people the foreign fishing fleets represent, not taking into account the one billion Africans, many of whom depend on their daily catch to survive. Without taking the proper steps (time) necessary to replenish the fishery areas, the extraction of these precious resources will be unsustainable.