The EU and Italy turn a blind eye to illegal fishing in West Africa – VoxEurop

Part 1

The Italian fishery system (government authorities, shipowners, consumers) has been caught up in fishing crime in West Africa. The documents we gained access to, as well as the confidential testimonies we collected, reveal the legal shortcomings and institutional silence within the European system when it comes to illegal fishing in overseas countries. The seabed of the Gulf of Guinea is colonized by foreign trawlers; the sea is plundered, impoverishing the indigenous fishermen, using often illegal practices that cause losses for coastal countries estimated by the FAO at over 2 billion euros a year.

The Chinese fleet leads the pack, but there are also fleets from Korea, Russia, France and Spain. There is also an Italian fleet, though it’s shrunk to a few units since 2000. Six of these, registered in Sicily, have acted illegally or suspiciously along the African coasts for years, especially in Sierra Leone, a country which issued them fishing licenses between 2016 and 2020. In 2018, Orione Q and Pegaso Q of the shipping company Asaro, and Idra Q and Myra Q of Italfish were tracked to Sierra Leone.

Some of these would seem to have drifted to where they shouldn’t have, namely, the coastal strip that Sierra Leone reserves for small-scale artisanal fishing. This can be tracked on the Global Fishing Watch map, which intercepts the signals transmitted by the AIS satellite antennas, mandatory on large boats to avoid collisions. “By analyzing speed and direction based on AIS data, we identify the vessels that are probably fishing, but without having certain proof,” explains Maria Valentine of the NGO Oceana, curator of the project.

These trespasses were reported to the NGOs CFFA, Bloom and Living Seas by Sierra Leonean fishermen, who have also reported incursions into protected breeding sites and transshipments of unauthorized fish. The NGOs have formally complained to the European Commission concerning the inaction of the Italian government, which is required by EU law to monitor, and potentially fine, the boats that fly its flag. Italian law requires up to 2 years imprisonment or a penalty of 12,000 euro for fishing in prohibited areas.