Assessing Guinea Bissau's Legal and Illegal Unreported and Unregulated Fisheries and the Surveillance Efforts to Tackle Them

Abstract

Fisheries in Guinea Bissau contribute greatly to the economy and food security of its people. Yet, as the ability of the country to monitor its fisheries is at most weak, and confronted with a heavy foreign fleet presence, the impact of industrial foreign fleets on fisheries catches is unaccounted for in the region. However, their footprint in terms of catch and value on the small-scale sector is heavily felt, through declining availability of fish. Fisheries in Guinea Bissau are operated by both legal (small-scale and industrial), and illegal (foreign unauthorized) fleets, whose catches are barely recorded. In this paper, we assess catches by both the legal and illegal sector, and the economic loss generated by illegal fisheries in the country, then attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of Monitoring Control and Surveillance (MCS) of Guinea Bissau's fisheries. Two main sectors were identified through official reports and a literature review, the large-scale (industrial) sector, which between 2011 and 2017 included exclusively catches by foreign owned and flagged vessels, and catches by the small-scale sector, which remain largely unmonitored in official statistics. We use the available data on the number of legal and illegal vessels and/or fishers, and their respective catch per unit of effort to estimate catches, and we analyze monitoring outcomes against the registered industrial and artisanal fleets. We find that of the legal industrial vessels, 20% were linked to criminal activities in the past 7 years. These activities range widely from using an illegal mesh size, to fishing in a prohibited area, to labor abuse. Overall, total small-scale and industrial catches were estimated at 370,000 t/year in 2017, of which less than 2% is ever reported to the FAO. Small-scale catches represented 8% of the total catch, and this contribution was found to be declining. Industrial fisheries generate over $458 million US, or which $75 million US is taken illegally, falling under the category trans-national fisheries crimes. The slight negative relationship between the number of monitoring days at sea illegal catches suggests increasing MCS efforts may play an important role in reducing illegal fishing in the country.

Evaluating the Feasibility of Sustainable Seafood Labelling Programmes in Small Island Developing States: A Pilot Study of Artisanal Fisheries in Seychelles

“…We believe this pilot work can serve as a valuable guide to direct future research on the development of seafood labelling programs in African SIDS nations. African SIDS share a disproportionate reliance on the ocean for economic production via tourism and fisheries, food security and cultural heritage, and face similar threats such as over-exploitation and climate-induced habitat loss (Obura, 2017;Intchama et al, 2018;González et al, 2020). Many African SIDS also share similar aspects of their fisheries which are deemed important for a seafood labelling program.…”

The duplicity of the European Union Common Fisheries Policy in third countries: Evidence from the Gulf of Guinea

“…• An analysis of the catch data between the EU and countries with whom it has a fishing partnership agreement in West Africa ex-tracted from the Sea Around Us Database covering 2010 and 2014, (Intchama et al, 2018;Belhabib et al, 2016b;Belhabib, 2015;Belhabib et al, 2013a,b,d;Belhabib and Pauly, 2015a,b;Pauly and Zeller, 2016;Santos et al, 2013). We then cross-re-ferenced EU catches within the EEZs of select West African countries for species whose landed value contributes 5% or more to the total landed value with the exploitation status of those species (moderately exploited, underexploited, fully exploited, or depleted/overexploited).…”

“…The total percentage for each country reviewed does not add up to 100 per cent because, as set out in the methodology, only species whose commercial value represented 5 per cent or over of the total landed value were included. Data extracted from: (Santos et al, 2013;Belhabib et al, 2016;Belhabib et al, 2013c,d;Belhabib and Pauly, 2015;Belhabib and Pauly, 2015a;Intchama et al, 2018;Belhabib, 2015;Belhabib et al, 2014;Pauly and Zeller, 2016). Also, Fig.…”

“…With dwindling economic alternatives, fish plays a significant role in the food security of the Bissau-Guinean population contributing more animal protein than any other sector of the economy (UNSC, 2017; Neuman, 2015;Andriamihaja et al, 2011;Toupane, 2019). It also makes a significant contribution to the economic security of the country, with the fishing industry generating up to 50 per cent of the government's revenue (Heitman, 2009: 45) and 6 per cent of GDP (Intchama et al, 2018).…”

“…Some of these subsidies further enable fishing vessels to engage in IUU activities in the region. IUU fishing activities are widespread notably due to ineffective surveillance and sanctioning mechanisms available to the countries they operate in (Okafor-Yarwood 2019, Doumbouya et al 2017, Intchama, et al 2018).…”