Greenpeace Hunts Pirate Fishermen Off West Africa
Date: 28-Mar-06
Country: GUINEA
Author: Saliou Samb
Greenpeace said it had been monitoring nearly 70 vessels off West Africa over the past ten days and found many operating illegally and depleting fish stocks.
Two Guinean officials with the powers of arrest had joined its surveillance boat, it said.
"Pirate fishing is a global threat to the oceans and those who depend on them," Greenpeace oceans campaigner Sarah Duthie said in a statement.
"The first thing that must be done is to close ports to pirate fishing boats, deny them access to markets and ensure that companies are prosecuted," she said.
The authorities in Guinea, which lacks any efficient marine surveillance system, said Greenpeace had started working in their waters on Sunday and would continue its operation until Thursday.
"They are working in the context of a programme involving a large stretch of the West African zone, down from Gambia," said Pascal Konate, deputy director of Guinea's national fishing protection and surveillance centre.
Greenpeace said of the 67 foreign-flagged vessels it had been monitoring from Korea, China, Italy, Liberia and Belize, 19 were not authorised to fish.
Eight vessels were within the 12-mile (19 km) limit reserved for local fishermen.
The group said foreign trawlers typically transferred the illegal catch to refrigerated ships which then transported it to Europe, often through Las Palmas in Spain's Canary Islands.
Fishermen up and down West Africa's Atlantic Coast, many of whom use traditional open boats and struggle to earn a living, complain that sophisticated foreign trawlers are mopping up fish stocks.
Greenpeace estimates that pirate fishing in sub-Saharan Africa alone is worth US$1 billion a year. It says pirate fishing is worth between US$4-9 billion globally each year and represents 20 percent of the world's total fish catch.
The United Nations estimates around 75 percent of the world's fisheries have been fished to their limits, and Africa's west coast is seen as a target for pirates as the region has few resources to enforce regulations at sea.
The Greenpeace expedition off Africa's west coast, a partnership with the London-based Environmental Justice Foundation, is part of a wider global campaign.
It follows months of confrontations with Japanese whalers off Antarctica.
