On 22-25 October 2024 in Luanda took place the third in-person training organised as part of the project SADC Atlantic. Less than one year after the official launch of SADC Atlantic in Angola by H.E Minister Carmen dos Santos on 20 February 2024, the impact of the capacity-building brought by the MCSCC and its technical partners SIF and TMT is already bearing fruits.

Angola’s engagement in regional cooperation to combat IUU fishing has been increasing significantly, notably through sharing of intelligence that has been instrumental for other countries in the region to identify and make informed decisions about confirmed cases of IUU fishing. Coaching and mentoring of Angolan MCS officers will continue to build on these achievements, which constitute valuable lessons learnt for the whole SADC region.

“Since the beginning of SADC Atlantic, the way we perceive MCS has changed significantly”, said Emiliano Zaila, MCS Director at the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources. “It is helping build the confidence of our MCS officers in the conduct of their work”.

Capacity-building workshops started in March 2024 in Luanda and Lobito, focussing on the importance of risk assessments of fishing vessels requesting access to port in Angola, and on port inspections. MCS officers were introduced to various instruments that can be used to anticipate and act against vessels considered potentially to be at risk of having engaged in IUU fishing activity. One of these key tools is the risk assessment matrix developed by SIF, which Namibia and South Africa – the two other target countries of SADC Atlantic – have now integrated into their routine MCS procedures.

With this third in-person workshop, focus has been on putting into practice those learnings, with case studies and scenarios. Angola’s legal framework provides Angolan fisheries officers with a solid basis to take measures against fishing vessels engaged in or supporting IUU fishing; mastering these laws and regulations will foster their empowerment and confidence to take actions if violations are detected.

Two days were also dedicated to the officers of the monitoring department of the Ministry (MONICAP). The objective: continuing coaching them in using tools for remote monitoring of the Angolan EEZ. MONICAP officers benefit from Satellite monitoring platforms, which are a precious help in their work. Those platforms allow them to identify several suspicious events of fishing vessels in their EEZ, which they report through the SADC MCSCC regional communication platform. In this training, focus was put on the platform SeaVision, a powerful tool which they are hoping to set up in all seven regional MONICAP stations on the coastline. Other tools presented included Skylight and Vessel Viewer, free tools that also give access to extensive information about fishing vessel operations and risk.

Mastering these tools needs time and practice, and the next months will put emphasis on coaching the officers to use them. Coaching and experience will help them improve analysis of suspicious events, and to identify anomalies that would constitute risks for Angola and the region.

This improved monitoring capacity will be key to enhance risk assessments of fishing vessels coming to Angola. Assessing the risk of fishing vessel operations through remote monitoring is one essential part of the risk assessment methodology that MONICAP officers are now to put into practice. Together with Namibia and South Africa, Angola’s experience will generate valuable learnings for the SADC region. The objective: harmonising, through the SADC MCSCC, the way risk assessments are conducted, and developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that could be applied to all SADC MCSCC Member States. The elaboration of SOPs for MCS operations is one of the functions of the MCSCC, which the Centre aims to reach by mid-2025. By supporting this process, SADC Atlantic makes another key contribution to the operationalisation of the MCSCC.