An assessment of the impact of foreign fishing in EEZ of African Countries

Abstract

This study assesses the impact of foreign fishing in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of African countries. The top 12 African marine fisheries producing countries, (3 countries per regional block) were studied using a 10-year (2006 to 2016) foreign catch data. We found 52 foreign countries fishing in African EEZ. Europe had the highest number of countries (24), followed by Africa (18), Asia (5) and North American (5). Foreign catch excluding reflagged vessel, constituted 39% of the African marine fisheries production of which 54% was caught by Europe, Asia (24.42%), Africa (10.93%) and North America (7.96%). The top 5 foreign catch countries by volume were China, Russia, Japan, Spain and Belize whereas, the top 4 commercial fishes caught by volume were perch-likes species 15.50%, herring-likes (13.26%), tuna (9.65%) and anchovies (9.47%). Bottom trawlers were the dominant gears used by Asian countries whereas, European and North American countries used pelagic trawlers. African countries used gillnet and encircling net. Foreign catch had quadrupled from 400,000 tons in 1996 to 1,600,000 tons in 2016. The fishing agreements between the foreign fishing countries and African marine countries have increased astronomically from 36 in 1960s to 307 in 2000. EU countries engaged in regional fishing agreement while Asian countries focused on government-to-government agreements. North Americans used private company partnerships agreement. Agreements with regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) have increased from 1.96% in 2008 to 4.04% in 2015. We noted that ex-vessel price paid by foreign fishing vessels were underestimated and differ from country to country for the same volume of species. Asian countries were found to exchange payment of ex-vessel value with project development such as building of port, football stadium, among others. The hypothesis that foreign fishing is a major contributing factor for the depletion of African countries marine fisheries resources has been accepted. The hypothesis is even strongly accepted if the 40% of the estimated total catch tagged as reflagged catch (foreign catch renamed as national catch when foreign vessels enter joint venture arrangements and carry the host nation's flag) is correctly categorised as foreign catch. We recommend that RFMOs and other regional and sub-regional institutions support member states with technical and material resources in order to comply with the United Nations Convention of the sea (UNCLOS) regulations.