Illegal Fishing

ADF STAFF A pioneering oceanographer called on world leaders to ban industrial fishing in international waters to preserve fish populations and sustain the livelihoods of small fishing communities. Sylvia Earle, 86, made the…

ADF STAFF As many African nations struggle to control illegal fishing, some are turning to drones as a relatively cheap way to conduct surveillance over vast expanses of ocean. In March, the Seychelles Fisheries Authority announced…

ADF STAFF Somali authorities have vowed to crack down on foreign vessels fishing illegally in the country’s waters and protect the livelihoods of 70,000 people who work in its fisheries sector. The government’s announcement was made…

ADF STAFF Alagie Sarr remembers when fishermen in the coastal Gambian town of Gunjur could spend a few hours on the water and come back with a robust catch. Those days are over. Due to overfishing by foreign industrial vessels, a…

ADF STAFF Kenya is building a DNA database of its marine species, such as sharks, rays, crustaceans and mollusks, to conserve its aquatic resources in the face of widespread illegal fishing. The exercise involves harvesting species…

ADF STAFF Musa Sila, 57, has worked at sea for nearly four decades, but never in his career was he treated as poorly as when spent several months on a Chinese vessel in the Indian Ocean. During a meeting with Kenyan maritime…

ADF STAFF Small-scale fishermen on Madagascar’s east coast are disturbed by the growing presence of Chinese fishing trawlers in the island nation’s waters. In the last several years, at least 14 Chinese industrial vessels have likely…

ADF STAFF An influx of foreign industrial trawlers in Cameroonian waters has led to an increase in illegal fishing and highlighted the nation’s maritime and national security issues, according to a new study. An estimated 70…

ADF STAFF Boaventura Martins has been fishing off the island of Maio for 40 years. Maio is part of the Cabo Verde archipelago, a group islands 620 kilometers off Africa’s west coast, where the waters once teemed with sharks, whales,…

ADF STAFF The city of Nouadhibou, Mauritania, dangles from the mainland on a tiny peninsula. The city, the second largest in the nation, has nearly 120,000 residents and is a commercial center. Its harbor is the terminus of the…