A new report shows that foreign illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Somali waters by foreign fleets is reducing fish stocks and has caused widespread resentment among Somali coastal communities.
Entitled 'Securing Somali Fisheries', the new report shows that foreign industrial IUU fishing vessels catch over 132,000 metric tonnes of fish each year, while the Somali artisanal fleet catches only 40,000 metric tonnes.
The report is produced by Secure Fisheries, a programme of the One Earth Future Foundation and developed as part of Oceans Beyond Piracy.
It uses published and unpublished data, interviews with Somalis and regional experts, and unveils new satellite evidence of IUU fishing. Iran and Yemen have the largest fishing presence in Somali waters, while vessels from Europe and Asia also have landed significant catches.
Secure Fisheries said that foreign IUU fishing in Somali waters has been a problem for decades. During the 1990s, IUU fishing was a justification for pirate attacks in Somali waters. And though Somali pirates quickly shifted their focus toward more lucrative vessels, such as cargo ships and oil tankers, piracy appears to have caused many foreign fishing vessels to leave the area during the mid‐2000s.
But recently this trend has reversed. John Steed, Secure Fisheries Regional Manager for the Horn of Africa, said: "Illegal fishing was the pretext used by criminal gangs to shift from protectionism to armed robbery and piracy. And now the situation is back where it was, with large numbers of foreign vessels fishing in Somali waters again ‐ and there is a real danger of the whole piracy cycle starting all over."
The report provides 19 recommendations to reduce foreign IUU fishing in Somali waters and develop a sustainable Somali fishing sector. These include improving information sharing between international and regional actors to better identify fishing vessels operating in Somali waters, increasing the use of satellite tracking devices on fishing vessels and advancing fisheries infrastructure and development projects in Somalia.
