Illegal Fishing

ADF STAFF Illegal fishing by large industrial trawlers in Ghana has decimated fish stocks to the brink of collapse and left small-scale fishermen with empty nets. In Elmina, a coastal fishing town about 155 kilometers southwest of…

ADF STAFF Members of the Seychelles People’s Defence Force Tazar Special Forces boarded a ship, single file, with their guns drawn. “So, now we have the two security guys come up,” a U.S. Coast Guard instructor said. “Right here, this…

ADF STAFF A three-month investigation by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) has found that 90% of fishing vessels operating in Ghana are owned by Chinese companies. The EJF, a nongovernmental organization that tracks…

ADF STAFF West African officials are saying that the scourge of illegal fishing can only be addressed with a regionally united front. They are calling for greater cooperation on fisheries management, patrols and enforcement in…

ADF STAFF Benin, Ghana and Togo have signed a pact to work together to reduce illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Gulf of Guinea. Benin and Togo completed their first joint patrol operation in mid-December. It was…

ADF STAFF To prevent further decline of fish stocks in the Gulf of Guinea, Ghana recently urged neighboring countries to implement coordinated closed fishing seasons. Paul Odartei Bannerman, deputy executive director of Ghana’s…

ADF STAFF Roughly 12.3 million people work in Africa’s fisheries and aquaculture sector, but their livelihoods are compromised by rules that favor large foreign fleets. According to an analysis published by The Conversation Africa,…

ADF STAFF Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing has overtaken piracy as the primary maritime security threat in African waters. The last year saw unscrupulous industrial trawlers continue using an array of tactics to catch…

ADF STAFF Ghana has implemented a co-management strategy among fisheries stakeholders to protect the livelihoods of artisanal fishermen, conserve fish stocks and combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The policy…

ADF STAFF The year 2021 in Africa will be remembered like 2020 was — the year of COVID-19. But there were other big stories in 2021 in Africa, the world’s fastest-growing continent. MILITARY COUPS — Over the past two decades, Africa…