Is the EU Taking its Over-Fishing Habits to West African Waters?
►http://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/world-hunger/general-analysis-on-hunger/51461-is-the-eu-taking-its-over-fishing-habits-to-west-african-waters.
According to the UN’s FAO, 25 percent of all fish caught by EU-registered boats comes from developing countries, at the expense of over 1.5 million local fishermen. Though fish supplies in developing nation’s waters are rapidly declining, rich countries and country groups, like the EU, are continuing to over-fish. Host country governments are becoming increasingly dependent on the income received by selling fishing rights to foreign corporations and countries. In West Africa, many people fear that communities where fishing is the main source of income will become less stable, making the region “more and more like Somalia.”
According to the PFA, about 50 international freezer-trawlers are active in Mauritanian waters at any one time, of which 30 originate from countries such as Russia, China, Korea or Belize. “By targeting fish species that cannot be fished by local fishermen, we avoid disrupting local competition and growth and always fish outside the 12-13 mile fishing limit for our type of vessel,” says a spokesman.
“Not all international operators active in Mauritanian waters meet the EU’s safety and environmental standards. This threatens our efforts to foster sustainable practices in the region.”
Greenpeace says the over-exploitation of African fisheries by rich countries is ecologically unsustainable and also prevents Africans from developing their own fisheries. It takes 56 traditional Mauritanian boats one year to catch the volume of fish that a PFA vessel can capture and process in a single day. Since the 1990s, the once-abundant west African waters have seen a rapid decline of fish stocks. Local fishermen say their catches are shrinking and they are forced to travel further and compete with the industrial trawlers in dangerous waters unsuitable for their boats.
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