Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) or "pirate" fishing is considered as one of the most serious threats to the achievement of sustainable fish stocks, with recent studies putting the worldwide value of illicit catches as high as US$23.5b a year.

Fishing is a crucial economic and social activity in West Africa, and specifically benefits women who process and sell the fish. © Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF)
Fishing is a crucial economic and social activity in West Africa, and specifically benefits women who process and sell the fish. © Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF)
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 80% of the world’s fish stocks are fully or overexploited. Pirate fishing represents a serious challenge to effective fisheries conservation and management worldwide. The potential for us to lose the fish we eat within our lifetime is very real; estimates are that at current rates of depletion, most fish stocks around the world will collapse by 2048.

At a time when world fish stocks are under unprecedented pressure, pirate fishing operations are:
  • stealing from our seas and oceans
  • undermining attempts at sustainable management
  • causing massive damage to the marine environment
  • jeopardising the food security and livelihoods of poor coastal communities in developing countries.

Pirate operators over-fish and often use destructive fishing methods, leading to the destruction of habitat and breeding areas for marine species. Meanwhile IUU fishing impacts on legitimate (especially small-scale) fishers by depleting stocks, destroying fishing gear and in some cases, violent confrontations that can leas to the loss of life.
 

EJF, with both local and international partners, has carried out extensive investigations that have documented the extent and impacts of illegal pirate fishing, particularly in West Africa.

Illegal pirate fishing vessels are decimating fish stocks in West Africa in order to supply the enormous demand for seafood in Europe and East Asia. © Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF)
Illegal pirate fishing vessels are decimating fish stocks in West Africa in order to supply the enormous demand for seafood in Europe and East Asia. © Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF)
In 2006 EJF, together with Greenpeace International, carried out a joint investigation to expose the extent and impacts of illegal fishing activities in the West African State of Guinea, a country with one of the highest rates of pirate fishing in the world. In the course of this expedition, 104 foreign flagged vessels, from Korea, China, Italy, Liberia and Belize were documented. Over half were found to be engaged in or linked to illegal fishing activities. The trip also included collaboration with the Guinean fisheries authorities, providing them with the means to apprehend vessels fishing illegally. This led to the arrest of the Lian Run No 14, guilty of fishing in Guinean waters without a licence.

More recently EJF has been in Sierra Leone, ranked 180 of 182 countries on the United Nations’ Human Development Index. We have been working with local fishing communities to document and expose the extensive impacts of IUU fishing on local livelihoods, incomes and food security. Pirate fishing vessels regularly enter the inshore waters upon which communities depend, and local people report a decrease in the size and number of fish in the area, along with the frequent loss of precious fishing gear, and occasional deliberate attacks on their canoes. Meanwhile local women report a decrease in household incomes and available food – leading to decreased health, school attendance and ability to meet basic nutritional and housing requirements.

Pirate fishermen would not be able to operate without a market for their catch. One of the main driving forces behind IUU fishing in West Africa is the enormous demand for seafood in Europe and East Asia. EJF’s investigations have exposed all parts of the supply chain – from East Asian fishing vessels plundering West Africa’s coastlines right through to the sale of seafood in Europe and the UK - linking it back to West Africa, via the Spanish port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands).

EJF investigations clearly indicate that much more needs to be done to address illegal pirate fishing that is decimating marine environments and livelihoods in West Africa.

 

EJF is campaigning to:


  • Eliminate the use of Flags of Convenience by Fisheries vessels that give a perfect cover for illegal activities by helping the beneficiaries of pirate fishing to avoid detection and penalties.
  • Press for international measures to combat IUU fishing are developed, ratified, implemented and strictly enforced. This includes the new EU IUU regulation and an international Port Controls treaty that will close ‘Ports of Convenience’ such as Las Palmas
  • Secure greater international support for developing countries that need help to combat illegal fishing.
  • Engage directly with both authorities and local fishing communities in West Africa to develop both ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ solutions to IUU fishing that are both locally appropriate and sustainable.
  • Empower grassroots organisations, providing training in video and advocacy that enables them to eradicate pirate fishing in their seas and peacefully end conflicts over diminishing natural resources.