Accra, March 25, GNA – Mr Jonathan Kelsey, the Director of Strategy and Engagement, Bloomberg Philanthropies, says secrecies in the fishing industry breed illegality and if unregulated and unreported (IUU) could threaten biodiversity, food security, livelihoods, and stability.
He said global annual losses from IUU fishing were estimated to be between US$10 and US$23.5 billion.
He made the statement at the launch of a Fisheries Transparency Project titled: “Enhancing Transparency in the Fisheries Sectors of Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Senegal”, by the Centre for Maritime, Law and Security (CEMLAWS) and funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies under their “Vibrant Oceans Initiative,” in Accra.
Mr Kelsey said distant water industrial fleets often operated behind a veil of fishing information secrecy and non-disclosure, decimating fish stocks, perpetrating human rights abuses, and stealing wealth and food from communities and sovereign nations.
Across West Africa, where an estimated 6.7 million people depended directly on fisheries for food and livelihoods, an average of 790,000 tons of fish were lost each year to IUU fishing, causing $1.9 billion in annual economic losses.
Speaking about fishing transparency, the Director said it was important to make robust fishing information publicly available, with transparent fisheries policy and decision-making processes.
The best weapon to bring accountability in the fight against IUU fishing, human rights abuses, and other corruption in the sector, he said was transparency.
Fishing transparency was necessary for achieving just, equitable, and sustainable fisheries and led to rewards for rule followers and punishments for rule breakers, Mr Kelsey said.
Dr. Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, making a presentation on the “Challenges and Opportunities in Fishery Transparency and Information Gathering,” said fishing was an employer of last resort and a chain empowerment scheme.
He said fish was a source of protein, food, and income for millions of people and source of revenue for coastal states in West Africa, therefore, the depletion of fish stock also had a crippling effect on the income generated by fisher folk in the region.
Key issues that needed attention in the sub-region’s fisheries sector were lack of transparency, questions about how vessels were licensed, their histories, including beneficial ownership, how infractions were dealt with, over-exploitation, IUU, monitoring surveillance and control constraints and selective enforcement.
To improve its governance in the sub-region, Dr Okafor-Yarwood suggested that the region complied with existing international regulations such as Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) and regional regulations.
PSMA was important because it gave states access to the necessary support, including Global Information Exchange System (GIES) and the Global Record of Fishing Vessels, he explained.
He also called on the sub-region to cooperate at the regional, national and international levels, to improve fisheries governance.
Mrs Mavis Hawa Koomson, the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, speaking as the Guest Speaker, said the role of fisher folks and users of the fisheries resource, at various levels of governance, had proven important to foster stewardship and sustainability of programmes crafted to meet the objectives of the efforts.
The broad-based approach involving the four project countries, she said would serve as important baseline information on recent challenges of coastal nations in addressing fisheries related concerns.
Mr Séraphin Dedi Nadje, General Secretary of the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea, said although the West and Central regions of the Gulf of Guinea were less rich in fisheries resources than other regions of the Atlantic coast, the presence of species with high commercial value in its waters, such as tunas and crustaceans, offered an important source of employment and foreign exchange for States exporting the products.
Due to the renewable nature of fishery resources, the States of the sub-region and their populations should benefit in a sustainable manner from the advantages provided by the resources.
However, he said the deficits in terms of fisheries governance in the sub-region, opening door to the overexploitation of fish stocks and the proliferation of illegal and unsustainable fishing practices, raised fears of worrying repercussions for populations and national economies.
“It is estimated today that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities represent 37 per cent of catches in West Africa, equivalent to approximately 1.5 billion euros in losses per year for the States of the sub-Saharan Africa,” Mr Nadje added.
GNA