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Spanish flagged vessel refuses to show fishing license to Ivorian officer – undermining regional efforts to stop illegal fishing in west Africa
The F/V Doniene, a Spanish flagged fishing vessel previously discussed in an article on the SIF website about illegal fishing by foreign flagged vessels in Liberian waters, refused to present its Liberian fishing license to an officer during an Ivorian inspection in February this year. The Captain of the vessel claimed that he was not required to show the authorities the Liberian fishing license. However, it is international best practice for fisheries officers and other relevant authorities to request to see a vessel’s fishing licenses, to ensure that these vessels have been fishing legally in both their and other countries waters.
The Executive Secretary of the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC), a regional fishery body that is actively promoting cooperation between countries to overcome illegal fishing joined the officers from the C´te d’Ivoire to conduct the inspection. He commented to Stop Illegal Fishing (SIF) that ‘the vessel is a well known European Union (EU) vessel working within the C´te d’Ivoire through an EU fisheries partnership agreement. These agreements allow EU fishing vessels to fish within the waters of C´te d’Ivoire to target the tuna stocks’. FCWC confirmed that ‘the Captain of the vessel did not allow the inspection team to see the Liberian fisheries license’.
He went on to explain how, under the auspices of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), an inter-governmental fishery organization responsible for the conservation of tuna, and importantly an organization that both the EU and C´te d’Ivoire are members of, the Captain is expected to comply with the request to show all relevant documents. The ICCAT recommendation 97-10 for a revised ICCAT Port Inspection Scheme specifies in point 3:3. ‘An inspector may examine the fish, fishing gear, fish samples, and all relevant documents, including fishing logbooks and cargo manifest (in the case of a mother ship or carrier vessel), to verify compliance with ICCAT measures’. FCWC noted that it was very disappointing that the Captain of the vessel acted against ICCAT recommendations in his reluctance to cooperate with the inspector. He added that this is also against the spirit of cooperation that the region expects with EU vessels that are allowed to fish in the region.
The Captain of the Spanish flagged vessel – F/V Doniene – failed to act in accordance with ICCAT recommendations, an act that undermines the efforts being made in the region by countries, the FCWC, SIF and others to develop cooperation in order to implement port State measures across the region. SIF and their mother organisation the NEPAD Agency hopes that by bringing this case to the attention of the international community, the European Union will work with us to bring to justice the French and Spanish purse seiners that have repeatedly been reported to fish illegally in the waters of west Africa.