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Dirty Fish: A new report from the Environmental Justice Foundation
A new report from the Environmental Justice Foundation highlights how ‘dirty fish’ are ending up on the plates of European consumers, and why it is imperative that action is taken to end this problem.
Pirate fishing is an enormous threat to Sierra Leone’s future development €“ a threat that urgently needs to be addressed. The Environmental Justice Foundation’s (EJF) campaign and project in the country is working with local communities, grassroots organisations and the Sierra Leone government helping to build their capacity to end pirate fishing. In this way the EJF aims to help ensure the protection of precious and declining fish resources, and provide a small but significant part in Sierra Leone’s recovery and future.
Sierra Leone has plentiful natural resources and its productive coastal waters are an invaluable source of food and employment for its people. Fishing is the life-blood of coastal villages in Sierra Leone, and represents many communities’ only source of income and livelihoods. Over 17,000 artisanal fishers and 80,000 ancillary workers (mostly women) are engaged in traditional fish processing and intra-regional trade, and fisheries represent about 10% of GDP. Fish is also the most affordable and widely available protein source, and constitutes a remarkable 80% of animal protein consumed in the country.
Fisheries could be contributing significantly to poverty reduction in Sierra Leone, and are particularly significant to food security and the rural poor. But in recent years foreign pirate fishing vessels have multiplied, taking advantage first of the chaos of the civil war, and more recently of the lack of capacity of the Sierra Leonean government to monitor and control their coastal waters. As a result it is estimated that the country is now losing almost $29 million every year to pirate fishing operators – a potential developmental income that local communities and the government cannot afford to lose.
Having spent time in Sierra Leone observing and documenting the prevalence of illegal fishing Duncan Copeland, the EJF’s lead Campaigner on IUU, comments ‘We were shocked to find just how widespread pirate fishing was in Sierra Leone and off the coast of West Africa in general. The impacts it has on both the marine ecosystem and local fishing communities is devastating and in Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries in the world, they simply cannot afford to lose this invaluable fish resource or compromise its sustainability, just so that Europeans can eat cheap fish and unscrupulous operators can make vast profits"
EJF investigations in Sierra Leone (and elsewhere along the coast of West Africa) have documented the extent and impacts of IUU fishing and exposed links of these operations to both Europe and East Asia. Of particular relevance are the loopholes in national and international laws that these vessels exploit to get away with their illegal activities. While most nations, are taking little action to address these problems, Europe has recently addressed many in Council Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 establishing a Community System to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, scheduled to be introduced in January 2010. This comprehensive legislation, written by the Directorate- General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG Mare), should be effective at helping to reduce the incidence of IUU fishing in West Africa.
However, IUU vessels in Sierra Leone are at the same time directly benefitting from other EU regulations allowing them access to the European seafood market. All IUU vessels identified by EJF in Sierra Leone carry numbers designated to them by the European Commission’s Directorate General of Health and Consumers (DG Sanco), meaning they have supposedly met strict EU hygiene standards and are therefore allowed to export fish to Europe. Vessels that fish illegally often do so to minimise the costs associated with legal fishing methods and are often at sea for years, thousands of miles away from their home countries. Cost-cutting can and does extend to all aspects of fishing relating to health and safety, including the handling of the catch and on-board storage facilities. The EU system is failing in two crucial ways – not only are DG Sanco standards rarely actually achieved, there also appears to be no coordination between DG Sanco and DG Mare to ensure that known IUU vessels are barred or eliminated from DG Sanco lists. Shortcomings in EU regulation are facilitating IUU fishing in West Africa, while simultaneously compromising the health and safety of European consumers.
It is absurd that the EU allows a situation whereby one regulatory framework aims to end IUU fishing, and another contributes to it. The system is flawed. DG Sanco does not carry out the vessel inspections and designation of the numbers itself; rather it delegates this task to a ‘competent authority’ in the flag state. Significantly all IUU vessels observed by EJF carrying DG Sanco numbers in Sierra Leone are owned by East Asian companies from countries that have demonstrated little capacity or will to govern the activities of fishing vessels flying their flag in West Africa. Many IUU vessels rarely if ever come into port or return to their home countries €“ it is extremely unlikely that they are ever inspected by either the third country competent authority or EU officials to see if they are actually meeting DG Sanco criteria. In addition, DG Sanco does not require that a vessel carrying one if its numbers actually demonstrates that it is legally licensed to fish.
Ironically, Sierra Leone is currently banned from exporting fish to the EU due to its lack of infrastructure and training to achieve EU hygiene Requirements. Fisheries should be contributing to the development of Sierra Leone, and is particularly significant to food security and the rural poor. Dirty Fish shows the reality: the high demand for seafood in Europe and East Asia is driving the theft and potential collapse of these crucial resources. Targeted approaches are needed to address IUU operations within Sierra Leone and the wider West African region, as well as internationally. The EU regulation on IUU fishing will hopefully have an impact on the ability of some of these IUU vessels to operate. However, this report clearly highlights that gaps still exist that must be addressed, not least in regards to the roles of DG Sanco and the Governments of South Korea and China, and the support West African nations need to effectively address IUU fishing themselves.
Since 2007 EJF has documented several vessels fishing illegally in Sierra Leone, all of which are listed by DG Sanco and many of which have history of IUU fishing. This includes the Apsari-3, arrested by the Sierra Leone Navy with support from EJF for IUU fishing. EJF documented how this vessel was full of boxes of illegally-caught fish that were packed in unsanitary conditions, despite being clearly stamped with the vessel’s DG Sanco number.
A SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE:
APSARI-3
· South Korea. DG Sanco number: KORF-098.
· Licensed to fish in Sierra Leone’s waters, but arrested for fishing less than 2 nautical miles from the shoreline and well within the Inshore Exclusion Zone (IEZ) strictly reserved for artisanal fishermen and as a breeding and nursery area for fish.
· All identification markings had been carefully concealed. The vessel carried two names on the hull €“ ‘Apsari-3’ in paint, and behind this, the embossed ‘No.52 Sung Kyung’. Later investigations showed the vessel is also known by a third name, the Dong Won No.521. The vessel’s call sign, DTAA, was also taped over and hidden.
· After the arrest of Apsari-3, EJF filmed as the catch was sorted by the crew, documenting that only those species considered commercially valuable were kept. The rest, an estimated 75% of the total, was discarded over the side. Those fish that were kept were packed into boxes in extremely unsanitary conditions. The vessel was rusting extensively and lacked basic hygiene facilities.
SETA-70
· South Korean. DG Sanco Number €“ KORF-242.
· History of IUU fishing €“ arrested in Liberia in Feb 2008.
· Unlicensed to fish €“ but observed by EJF fishing illegally in Sierra Leone’s IEZ, May 2008.
LUANDA 11
· South Korean. DG Sanco Number€“ KORF-214.
· Trawler, observed by EJF fishing illegally May 2008.
PUYU 6002
· Chinese. DG Sanco Number €“ 1200/20038.
· Observed by EJF illegally fishing in IEZ, October 2008, and destroying fishing gear owned by local fishermen.
The EJF’s full report Dirty Fish: How EU Hygiene Standards Facilitate Illegal Fishing in West Africa is available to download at:
http://www.ejfoundation.org/pdf/DIRTY_FISH_EJF_Report.pdf
http://www.ejfoundation.org/page95.html#other