The Gulf of Guinea region, which is predominantly rich in oil and fish, in addition to being the main shipping routes, loses in excess of $1.9billion (1.8billion euros) annually due to illegal fishing activities, according to statistics from Maritimecrimes.com.

The coastal area surrounding the Gulf of Guinea comprises 17 countries. Nine border the gulf on the Atlantic Ocean: Benin, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Togo and the archipelago of Sao Tome and Principe. Angola and the Republic of the Congo lie south, with Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia and Senegal to the north. The area covers 2.3 million square kilometres, with approximately 6,000 kilometres of coastline, extending from Senegal to Angola.

The statistics show that heterogeneous fleets of vessels sail on the region’s waters on a daily basis both for oil activity, as well as traditional and industrial fishing, most of while is illegal.

The region has become very coveted for fishing activities because it is barely monitored, or even not monitored at all ans as a consequence, 40per cent of the fish are caught illegally in the area, leading to an annual loss of income for the member countries amounting to more than $1.9 billion dollars (1.8 billion euros).

While artisanal fishing provides an important part of the food of the riparian countries, this uncontrolled industrial fishing could be an aggravating factor of insecurity in a region already affected by many problems: smuggling of petroleum products, a hub of drug trafficking between South America and Europe, a very large population facing the climate and food challenges.

A British expert on maritime security, Munro Anderson, explains: “Incidents related to illegal fishing have led to a dramatic fall in the livelihoods of local economies, which has made many young people susceptible to the lures of organised crime”. Thus, riparian countries are facing a double challenge: controlling the area in order to avoid the plundering of their waters and developing a local and complete fishery value chain, from catch to processing.

Recall that for many years, NGOs such as Greenpeace as well as some governments of riparian states have regularly denounced the problem of industrial overfishing in the region. After the Japanese and Eastern European trawlers in the 2000s, it is now the Chinese or Russian fleets whose illegal activities are regularly pointed out.

While it is obvious that this illegal fishing is a scourge for local populations, regular fishing agreements can also be criticised in that they often deprive coastal populations of the economic benefits of the processing of the catch, which is often done outside Africa via refrigerated vessels.

It was gathered that the question of the employment of local seafarers is also tackled by the criticisms made on these agreements, again under the prism of the lack of local economic benefits. Finally, the COVID crisis has inflamed the debates around the issue of fishing. Where traditional fishing activity has been suspended, like most of the rest of the economy, industrial fishing has been maintained, fueling the resentment of local fishermen whose associations have been quick to denounce this apparent inequality of treatment.

Available records however show that the riparian countries are beginning to organise themselves in order to face these challenges. Firstly, they have been working on improving the governance of the fight against illegal fishing, by creating in 2006 the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea FCWC, which brings together the six riparian states from Liberia to Nigeria with the objective of preserving the fishing resource to optimise economic and social benefits.

Secondly, they are aiming at increasing the efficiency of surveillance and control at sea. One can also note that Ghana, Togo and Benin conducted their first joint fisheries police patrol in December 2021. These projects are all financially assisted by the European Union and actively supported by some member states such as France, which is permanently deploying a Navy Falcon 50 maritime surveillance aircraft, based in Dakar, in addition to vessels operating within the framework of Corymbe operation (since 1990).

Finally, while the local industry is not in a position to equip deep-sea fishing vessels, the allotment of fishing licenses to European ship owners would allow for the further development of a real local value chain around fishing, and thus contribute to reducing unemployment and insecurity (particularly food insecurity) in the region.

These contracts should therefore include local employment, local landings and a fine management of catch quotas in order not to penalise artisanal fishing, which should also remain one of the pillars of the local economy.

Source: Maritimecrimes.com