REPORT: EU vessels linked to illegal fishing along the Indian Ocean coastline in East Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A report published by the Blue Marine Foundation has established that vessels linked to European Union [EU] have been illegally fishing on the west coast of the Indian Ocean, particularly in countries located along with East Africa and the Horn of Africa.

Charles Clover, Executive Director of Blue Marine Foundation, said the report, which has since been corroborated by Indian Ocean Tuna Commission whose findings are available in the media, shows cases of illegal fishing by EU vessels in Somalia, India, Mozambique, and other countries within the Indian Ocean Coastline.

“The report showing the locations of EU vessels is based on the findings of a study commissioned by Blue Marine Foundation and undertaken by OceanMind – a highly reputable organization – which in turn was based on publicly-available data reported by the EU and published by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission on its website. This data shows, for example, evidence of fishing on the part of vessels flagged to Spain in the waters of Somalia [in 2017 and 2018] and India [2018 and 2019]," he said.

"Europeche, see link below, claims that ‘No fishing took place from EU vessels in any coastal state waters without an agreement in place.’ We would like to request that Europeche shares with us the access agreements that were in place with Somalia and India when this fishing activity was reported by the EU. There is evidence to suggest that some of these fleets are fishing in coastal states’ waters without any kind of authorization and we call on the European Commission to investigate these instances as a matter of urgency.”

In addition to analyzing 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 Foundation further reports.

Further, 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.

Recently, a senior member of the Spanish fishing association, AGAC, admitted that AIS could indeed be switched off for commercial advantage. In addition to being inconsistent with EU law, going dark for commercial advantage also jeopardizes crew safety.

This non-compliance 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, the report further noted.

Somalia has been struggling with illegal finishing cases for years now and there is hope that the new administration will fix a number of issues that are yet to be fixed. The previous administration of Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo was often under attack with critics accusing a number of government officials of making proceeds from unregulated fishing.

Somalia, which has been in conflict for more than 30 years, lacks naval forces protecting its coast that has become a hotbed of piracy and illegal fishing.

GAROWE ONLINE