1 August 2007: New Report Exposes Link between UK Consumers and Stolen Fish from Africa

EJF’s new report ‘Pirate Fish on Your Plate’ links fish illegally caught off West Africa to the European marketplace and UK consumers.
EJF’s new report ‘Pirate Fish on Your Plate’ links fish illegally caught off West Africa to the European marketplace and UK consumers.
EJF's new report exposes the link between consumers in the UK and illegal or ‘pirate’ fishing vessels operating off West Africa that are decimating fish stocks and robbing some of the poorest people on the planet.

Pirate Fish on Your Plate demonstrates how the illicit trade involves the laundering of illegal fish through Las Palmas and ends with a number of UK suppliers, including Billingsgate fish market in London where EJF identified fish boxes carrying the logo of 'CNFC', a Chinese company involved in pirate fishing off Africa.

READ Pirate Fish on Your Plate


At Billingsgate, investigations revealed the names of 11 vessels on boxes of fish. Of these, four vessels have been documented operating illegally in West Africa, and the remaining seven vessels are owned by companies known to operate pirate fishing operations.
 
Fish will end up in UK fish markets and are sold on to an unsuspecting public, both victims of an EU regulatory and enforcement framework that is clearly failing to prevent IUU fish entering Europe. ©EJF
Fish will end up in UK fish markets and are sold on to an unsuspecting public, both victims of an EU regulatory and enforcement framework that is clearly failing to prevent IUU fish entering Europe. ©EJF
Wrapping tape on boxes for sale in Las Palmas identified a Spanish company, Frigoluz, and their processing facility in Las Palmas, which is an infamous ‘port of convenience’ for illegal fishing fleets where their catch can be unloaded with little or no scrutiny as to its origin or legality prior to being laundered into the EU marketplace.

The report also reveals that many of the illegal fishing vessels are ‘approved’ by the EU as reaching strict hygiene standards, and therefore permitted to import their catch into the EU. EJF’s investigations on board pirate vessels revealed extremely unsafe hygienic conditions, posing a threat to the health of UK and European consumers.

SEE HOW PIRATE FISHING VESSELS GET AWAY WITH THEIR ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES, AND HOW ILLEGAL FISH ENDS UP ON YOUR PLATE
 
EJF’s report is being launched along with a new film STOLEN FISH – How Pirate Fishing is Robbing the People and Seas of West Africa, documenting the extent and impacts of illegal fishing off the coast of Guinea.

WATCH STOLEN FISH
 

Key findings in the report include:


  • Fish illegally caught off West Africa goes through a complex laundering process that mixes illegal fish with legal catches, thereby gaining access to the lucrative EU market, and eventually ending up in the UK.


  • Spain’s notorious ‘Port of Convenience’ Las Palmas serves both as a ‘soft’ entry point into the EU, and also provides logistical services for the illegal fishing fleets.


  • Although many foreign vessels are involved in pirate fishing activities, Chinese vessels predominate. One culprit is state-owned CNFC; EJF documented boxes of fish stamped with the CNFC logo in three locations – onboard IUU fishing vessels off the coast of Guinea, being unloaded in Las Palmas, and in the UK.


  • Despite carrying DG SANCO numbers and supposedly meeting strict EU hygiene standards, EJF documented extremely unsafe hygiene conditions on many of the IUU fishing vessels, compromising the health and safety of end consumers.


  • Current EU regulatory and enforcement framework is clearly failing to prevent IUU fish entering Europe via Ports of Convenience such as Las Palmas. EJF contends that failure by the EU and member states to enact a series of measures to prevent illegal fish entering the EU will lead to dramatic declines in commercial catches, marine biodiversity, and the loss of livelihoods in some of the world’s poorest nations.


EJF’s Duncan Copeland said today: 'We were quite shocked to find these links, and discover just how easily pirate fish can enter the European market. Africa is now losing almost 1 billion US dollars a year to illegal fishing activities so that we can eat exotic seafood here in the UK.'
 

EJF’s campaign to highlight the problem of IUU/Pirate fish is backed by leading Chefs, Tom Aikens and Antony Worral Thompson.

Chef Antony Worrall Thompson said: 'Sustainable and ethical fish supplies must be our central concern if we want to be able to continue to enjoy these dishes. The fact that fish stolen from poor West African countries is so easily accessing our marketplace is something that must be addressed by all of us, chef, consumer and government alike.'

Tom Aikens of Tom’s Place agrees: 'It is vital that we source our fish sustainably, and not be responsible for the theft of fish and livelihoods in countries that cannot afford to lose them. Pirate fishing is not a problem without a solution; what needs to be done is well known, and very possible. It is now up to the governments of Europe, and also all of us as consumers and chefs, to act quickly to stop illegal fishing.'

Duncan Copeland from EJF continues: 'Unless the EU and its member states introduce a series of measures, such as closing Ports of Convenience like Las Palmas, we will quickly see dramatic declines in commercial catches and marine biodiversity, and be party to the decimation of livelihoods in some of the world’s poorest nations.'
 
Update: February 2008
The Environmental Justice Foundation would like to applaud Belize’s recent actions to combat and eradicate IUU fishing activities by vessels flying its flag. It is now a member if ICCAT, WCPFC, IOTC, IATTC and NEAFC, and has no fishing vessels on the IUU Lists of any RFMO. EJF is pleased to learn that, by its own volition, Belize had detected, fined and deregistered the reefer vessel ELPIS on the 1st of June 2006 due to its illegal transshipment of fish in contravention of Belize’s High Seas Fishing Act 2003.

The Elpis is mentioned in our report ‘Pirate Fish on your Plate’ (published August 2007) as we had observed it transshipping fish from vessels engaged in IUU activities in April 2006. Belize has shown its commitment in combating IUU fishing and its awareness of the crucial role which reefer vessels play in delivering illegally caught fish to the markets.