An evolving crime at sea: the security challenge posed by IUU fishing

While six million people in West Africa suffer from food insecurity and 550 million inhabitants of the sub-region of the Gulf of Guinea depend on an average of 70% of fish resources, Africa is the only region in the world where fish consumption is globally declining. At the same time, the maritime areas of the Gulf of Guinea are heavily frequented by fishing vessels, both artisanal and industrial. Fishing provides local livelihoods for 7 million people, including many women and children responsible for selling and processing artisanal fishery products. Yet the region suffers from a lack of knowledge about the state of fish stocks and it is estimated that 40 to 60% of fish catches in the Gulf of Guinea result from illegal fishing, leading to the loss of 300,000 jobs in artisanal fisheries. However, this practice is not per se included in transnational maritime crime. Yet it poses a threat not only to the environment but also to the economy, politics and people livelihood. In the Gulf of Guinea, IUU fishing is also increasingly associated with criminal activities ranging from falsification of official documents to human trafficking, smuggling and drugs trafficking. The link between IUU fishing and insecurity - maritime and global - is therefore very strong. This communication aims, using the example of the Gulf of Guinea, to better identify the illegal practices implemented by illegal fishermen, the importance of the security challenges posed by IUU fishing, but also to present some solutions at sea to combat those illegal practices.