Guinea (Conakry)

Guinea-Conakry has extensive and valuable shrimp, cephalopod and pelagic (deep water) fisheries. The fisheries sector is of vital importance, providing 70,000 jobs, primarily in the artisanal sector. Fish represents an important source of affordable food for the local population, providing more than half of dietary protein.

However, a recent report commissioned by the UK Department for International Development found that IUU fishing costs Guinea more than 34,000 tonnes of fish every year, worth around US$110 million, including around 10,000 tonnes of 'discards' - the unwanted portion of the catch thrown overboard, usually dead or dying. With Guinea's annual commercial catch estimated at 54,000 tonnes, this IUU catch represents a further 64% over and above these legal recorded catches.

Surveillance exercises in Guinean waters indicate that between 20% and 60% of fishing vessels are unlicensed. A major problem in Guinean waters, and indeed many African states, is illegal incursions by trawlers into the narrow coastal zone reserved exclusively for artisanal fishing. In Guinea, such incursions have caused stock depletions, the destruction and loss of fishing gear and canoes, and even the deaths of local fishermen.

As is the case in many developing states, fisheries monitoring and enforcement authorities lack the resources to properly defend Guinea's 320 km coastline from IUU fishing. Despite possessing the largest continental shelf area of Atlantic Africa (56,000 km2), Guinea relies on just five inshore patrol boats to protect its waters and several of these are inactive due to a severe lack of funds.

In 2005, a joint EJF and CFFA (Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements - http://www.cape-cffa.org) team visited Guinea-Conakry to document firsthand the IUU fishing that plagues this small West African state. A short documentary film covering the issues highlighted by our trip was produced and presented in Conakry to the Guinean fisheries minister in the presence of 100 representatives of artisanal fishermen and women. It was also shown at a UK Department for International Development (DfID) / NORAD workshop on IUU fishing in June 2005.

We discovered that, despite possessing limited monitoring and enforcement capabilities, the Guinean authorities arrested nineteen fishing vessels during the first six months of 2005. Of these, eight were charged with fishing without a licence; four for fishing in the 12 nautical mile zone reserved for artisanal fishermen; and six for using the wrong size mesh in their trawl.

A close examination of the ownership and registration of these IUU vessels has shown that many have a long history of illegal fishing in Guinean waters and are well known to surveillance authorities. Most originate from China, Korea and the EU, but multiple name and flag changes are common, making identification of true beneficial owners very difficult. Some vessels even have dual identities - using one name or flag whilst fishing in Guinea and a totally different one when using port facilities and/or landing their catches (see photo above). Regardless of the ambiguity surrounding the identity of these vessels, however, there is undisputable evidence that the Spanish port of Las Palmas serves as a hub for their illegal operations: permitting them to land their catches, and providing them with essential services, almost totally free of scrutiny.

Two of the vessels impounded by the Guinean authorities were captained by Italians at the time of arrest and subsequent investigations have revealed clear links to Italian-owned companies (headquartered in Sicily). Alarmingly, three of the vessels arrested appear on the EU list of fishing vessels and processing plants whose fisheries products are authorised for export to the EU. This list entered into force on 29 April 2005, several months after the three vessels in question were arrested. It would appear therefore that IUU-caught fish is flowing onto the EU market through both official and unofficial channels for consumption by unwitting consumers, due to lax port controls and inadequate trading safeguards.