Nigeria Rallies Continental Support Against Illegal, Unregulated Fishing

ABIOLA Seun |

The federal government has raised the alarm over illegal transhipment by foreigners on African waters as new method of engaging in Illegal, Unregistered and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.

This was even as the federal government called for continental approach to put a stop to IUU in the region.

The appeal was made by an Assistant Director, Federal Department of Fisheries, Popoola Babatunde, at the 33rd annual conference of Fisheries Society of Nigeria (FSN), tagged Itesiwaju Eko, held in Lagos.

Popoola who called for regional cooperation to tackle illegal fishing in Africa said transhipment is illegal unless application is sought from relevant authority and approval granted.

“Transhipment is illegal and if you want to do transhipment you must apply so that they (government) will give you the authority to do it maybe as a result of distress. You cannot just be doing transhipment because if you are doing transhipment on your own, it is illegal so many of them go as far as doing transhipment without recourse to the authority.”

He continued, “When they want to steal, the mother vessel stays while the small vessel will be the one that will collect the fishes but rather than bring the products ashore they will transfer it to mother vessels.

“Also, they will not carry observers who are supposed to be on the vessel because observers are the ones to collate what they have taken and it is the observers that will render the data to the authority concerned.

Popoola however called for political will among African leaders to stop the illegal activities of foreigners which has cost the government huge amount of money.

“There is need for political will because if there is no political will, there is nothing we can do; we need to count and say this is the resources and we need to preserve it or else, we wake up one day and we realise that there is no fish in the water anymore.

Though, the federal government is waking up to the occasion and just last year two surveillance boats were approved and the process is ongoing to purchase these surveillance boats which the federal department of fisheries and Navy will collaborate with government. We are also planning to get our Vessels Monitoring System (VMS) working so that any vessel that comes on our waters will be registered and we will share information with the Navy.

The assistant director who also harped on national intra agency support also identified low awareness, weak and ineffective monitoring, control and surveillance as factors making African vulnerable to fisheries crime.

“Absence of political will and necessary diplomatic action to facilitate regional cooperation, inadequate legal and justice system, low penalties for IUU fishing crimes and low awareness has called on other African countries to come together to fight Illegal, Unregulated and Unregistered fishing across the region.”

He however suggested national inter-agency support, regional collaboration and international process as panacea to IUU.

Recall that the Gulf of Guinea Commission yesterday raised the alarm that Nigeria and other West African countries loses over $2billion annually to illegal fishing by foreigners.