African countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) contributed over 6 million metric tons of fish to the world’s food supply, supporting food security and livelihood in the continent, while generating $15 billion to the African gross domestic product in 2011. Every sovereign state has an EEZ, an area of ocean adjacent to their shores in which they have special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources.
Industrial fleets from countries around the world have been increasingly fishing in African waters, but with climate change and increasing pollution threatening Africa’s fish stocks, there is a growing concern of the sustainability of these marine fisheries if they continue to be exploited by foreign countries.
A new study used Automatic Identification System (AIS) satellite data from Global Fishing Watch to describe and characterize the spatial characteristics of African and foreign industrial fishing activities within these African EEZs. Mi-Ling Li, assistant professor in the University of Delaware’s School of Marine Science and Policy in the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment (CEOE), served as the lead author on the paper, which was published in the Fish and Fisheries scientific journal.
Countries in Africa have a short-term economic incentive to grant foreign countries access to fish in their waters. Those foreign countries have to make direct payments to acquire permits to fish in a country’s EEZ.
The study described spatial and temporal characteristics for both African and foreign industrial fishing activities — examining boats that were large enough to carry AIS trackers.
The EEZs fished by a large number of countries were generally located in West Africa, with the EEZs of Western Sahara and Mauritania fished by the highest number of foreign countries.
The resources of specific fish stocks could determine where vessels would fish. Vessels from Japan, for instance, spent most of their time fishing in eastern Africa for tuna, with an estimated 75% of total reported Japanese catches coming from the waters of Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, and Seychelle.
While the AIS data can show where and how long the vessels were fishing, there is a reliance on the reporting data from the vessels themselves to confirm what they are catching. Sometimes, the data does not always correlate, pointing to the possibility of illegal, unreported or unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The study used Namibia, an African country in that region, as a case study.
Unlike some other African countries, Namibia requires fleets in their EEZ to land their catches in their domestic ports. Not all fishing fleets followed that regulation, however. While 20 fishing entities were identified by AIS as being in Namibian waters, not all of the vessels recorded having caught fish in those waters.
The authors said the AIS system can be utilized to help detect and characterize unreported activities in these EEZs, which can help with the response to IUU fishing.
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