- EURASIAREVIEW.COM - A la une - 16/Jul 23:32

Indian Ocean Nations Grapple With Illegal Chinese Fishing Trawlers

Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania lost up to $142.8 million annually between 2015 and 2021 to illegal fishing of shrimp and tuna, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Other catch taken from these waters include at least 56 species of sharks and rays and a variety of reef fish. The nature of the crime means the actual amount of money lost to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is likely far higher. Many IUU fishing vessels in the region are from China, which commands the world’s largest distant-water fishing fleet and is the world’s worst illegal fishing offender. Beijing’s fleet has expanded its activities in the Indian Ocean Region — and they are not limited to fishing. China has a well-documented practice of using its fishing fleet as a maritime militia. Its vessels double as military auxiliaries trained by the People’s Liberation Army Navy. “These fishing boats potentially serve as China’s frontline assets for grey-zone operations in the IOR, equipped with sophisticated surveillance equipment like subsea lasers and cameras, and some also carrying military grade equipment,” analysts Ajay Kumar and Charukeshi Bhatt wrote for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The vessels operate under military command and are tasked with gathering data that can support the operations of underwater military assets. “The presence of these vessels in the IOR, combined with China’s access to key ports across the Indian Ocean, secured through economic agreements with littoral states, can strengthen its strategic hold over this vital maritime route,” Kumar and Bhatt wrote. Avoiding Detection Around the continent and Indian Ocean Region, Chinese fishing vessels avoid detection in a variety of ways. They notoriously “flag in” to African nations, meaning they use and abuse local rules to assign a foreign-owned and -operated fishing vessel to an African registry to fish in local waters. Flagging in is a common sign that vessels engage in illegal fishing. Beijing’s fishing fleet is also known to use prohibited nets, fish with explosives and in prohibited areas, and practice bottom trawling, which indiscriminately scoops up all manner of marine life. These activities deplete fish stocks, drive food insecurity and threaten the livelihoods of the roughly 12.3 million people working in African fisheries and aquaculture, many of whom live in coastal nations. In Madagascar, brothers Labako and Gérard and their family have relied on fishing for a living for generations, but business is far from booming. Growing desperate, they used their savings to buy a small diesel engine for their wooden canoe so they can fish farther out to sea. “In recent years, fish have become scarce,” Gérard said in a World Bank report. “You have to go further and further out to be able to fish. It is certainly more dangerous to venture offshore, but if we don’t, we would come back empty-handed.” Depleted fish stocks have led to security issues such as smuggling, piracy and maritime organized crime. In Somalia, pirates, sometimes with help from the al-Shabaab terror group, claim to protect local waters from illegal fishing. Exploiting Regulatory Gaps Gaps in international regulatory frameworks allow the activities of China’s fishing fleet to go largely unchecked. These frameworks include the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) and the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA). The United Nations Convention is the world’s primary framework for ocean governance but lacks specific requirements and rules for managing fisheries or regulating fishing practices in the coastal waters and high seas, according to Kumar and Bhatt. The IMO is the global standard-setting body for international shipping and has a subcommittee focused on illegal fishing. However, its efforts are undermined by China’s opaque maritime agreements with financially vulnerable coastal states in the IOR and other areas. China has a prominent presence in RFMOs worldwide. These organizations operate on a consensus-based decision-making process, which can undermine compliance, according to Kumar and Bhatt. The PSMA is the only binding treaty targeting illegal fishing. Its main objective is to prevent vessels involved in illegal fishing from accessing ports. However, it only applies when vessels attempt to access ports outside their flag state. This can be exploited by illegal fishing vessels operating under foreign flags. “In the case of China, vessels flagged under foreign states, such as certain African nations, may avoid PSMA restrictions by entering ports within the flag state itself,” Kumar and Bhatt wrote.