We’re currently following a stern trawler as it fishes. It’s not the biggest vessel out here, but, like many others it is fishing up and down where the shallow continental shelf meets deeper waters. That there is fish in these waters there is no doubt, and proved by the birds, whales and dolphins we encounter here, as well as the fishing vessels.
But it’s less easy to know just who is fishing, and where this fish will end up.
Take this stern trawler. It flies a Belize flag. That’s Belize in the Caribbean, famed as a haven for wealthy UK tax-dodgers, so you might well think that the ship was owned and operated by a company in Belize, right?
Wrong. From what we can fathom it is actually owned and operated by a company in Latvia. That’s Latvia, in the EU, on the balmy shores of the Baltic. A far cry from the Caribbean.
We’ve seen other similarly confusingly flagged ships out here hoovering up fish from West African waters. Despite the flag that says ‘St. Kitts & Nevis’ or ‘St. Vincent & the Grenadines’, the money, management and power lead back to places like Lithuania, Iceland, Spain, Russia, and even Belgium.
So what exactly is going on? Why on earth would all these European countries be linked to Caribbean flags? What next, Belize and St. Kitts to enter the Eurovision Song Contest?!
Well, these vessels are using so-called flags of convenience, by registering or operating the vessel nominally from a different country they can get either access to a share in their quota, or manage to avoid some of the more punitive rules, and costs. So for a Europe-based company, looser laws and lower labour costs in somewhere like the Caribbean suddenly becomes a very lucrative prospect.
What this means is not only are West Africa’s waters being fished out by the ‘legitimised plunder’ of boats like the PFA, and pirate vessels operating outwith regulations, but they are also being emptied by these quasi-legitimate vessels exchanging flags as casually as business cards.
All of this leads to an increasingly crowded sea out here off Mauritania. On land some 1.5 million artisanal fishermen fish along the coasts of West Africa and depend directly on it for their and their communities’ survival. Out to sea, fishing boats from Europe and Asia do whatever deals it takes to fish cheaply, and efficiently to haul in enormous catches of the same fish the locals depend on.
Most of this fish, much already processed onboard the ships, will probably be landed through the port Las Palmas and off to European and Asian markets – adding insult to injury to the West African people whose fish is being stolen from right under their own noses.
Those of us living in the developed north owe it to our brothers and sisters in Africa to give them a fairer deal and a fighting chance. Stealing their livelihoods for cheap fish is anything but that. Europe is currently looking regulations covering how their vessels fish overseas. Clearly, the EU at least needs to make sure its member states are not using these dodgy deals to avoid playing by the rules.
Willie MacKenzie, Oceans Campaigner is currently on the Arctic Sunrise
