Marine environment and local communities threatened

London November 15th 2008
 
Fish provides 80% of animal protein to Sierra Leone, and provides income for almost 100,000 women and men in the country. Yet everyday pirate trawlers invade local waters, destroying fish stocks and the lives of local communities. © EJF
Fish provides 80% of animal protein to Sierra Leone, and provides income for almost 100,000 women and men in the country. Yet everyday pirate trawlers invade local waters, destroying fish stocks and the lives of local communities. © EJF
Recent investigations by EJF show that illegal ‘pirate’ fishing is out of control along the coast of Sierra Leone, highlighting that collapsing fish stocks are not the only threat; some of the poorest communities in the world are being robbed of food and livelihoods.

West Africa supports some of the world’s most productive marine ecosystems, yet conflict, political instability and under-resourced enforcement agencies mean many countries are unable to effectively police their national waters. In Sierra Leone, recently ranked 177 out of 177 countries on the UN’s Human Development Index, desperately poor and trying to recover from its civil war, fisheries contribute significantly to poverty reduction. Fish provides 80% of animal protein and represents about 11% of the GDP. Over 17,000 artisanal fishers and 80,000 ancillary workers (mostly women) are engaged in traditional fish processing and intra-regional trade.

These are the people, some of the poorest on our planet, being directly impacted by an invasion of illegal ‘pirate’ fishing vessels. EJF’s investigations show that sightings of illegal fishing vessels in Sierra Leone are a daily occurrence, and that most are trawlers.

“This is a highly destructive method of fishing, dragging nets over the sea bottom and scooping everything up in their path, leading to massive wastage as only those species considered valuable are kept, while the rest – as much as 70% - are dumped dead over the side", said EJF Campaigner Duncan Copeland, continuing, “The most productive fishing grounds are those close to shore, in areas supposedly reserved for local fishers, people whose survival rests on being able to fish these waters, yet this is exactly where the trawlers go, destroying not only the fish stocks but also precious nets that can take years of saving for a family to buy”.
 
Illegal ‘pirate’ trawlers are taking advantage of the inability of the Sierra Leone government to patrol coastal waters, and have been documented fishing as close as 500 metres from shore by EJF investigators. © EJF
Illegal ‘pirate’ trawlers are taking advantage of the inability of the Sierra Leone government to patrol coastal waters, and have been documented fishing as close as 500 metres from shore by EJF investigators. © EJF
Increasingly fishing communities are reporting to EJF the negative impacts of pirate fishing, particularly a decline in catch volume and fish size. Local people who have few other options are finding it increasingly difficult to feed their families, send their children to school, rebuild their homes, or access adequate medical care

EJF believes much of this pirated fish will end up on plates in major consuming markets in Asia and Europe. “We are working to expose the trade in pirated fish to wealthy consuming markets and particularly those in the European Union, seeking new measures to bring this illegal, unsustainable and unfair trade to an end”, said EJF Executive Director, Steve Trent, “and at the same time we are working with local communities, grassroots organisations and the Sierra Leone government to find long term and ‘real-life’ solutions to pirate fishing in the region. There are solutions to this pressing problem, all it needs is political will and the support of the wealthy nations in Europe and elsewhere that consume this fish” concludes Trent.
 
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