Illegal Fishing and 'Piracy'?

[saward]

SOMALIS FOLLOWED UNCTAD - NOW THEY ALL ARE CALLED PIRATES by John Bamau
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was established in 1964 as a permanent intergovernmental body. It is the principal organ of the United Nations General Assembly dealing with trade, investment, and development issues.
The organization's goals are to "maximize the trade, investment and development opportunities of developing countries and assist them in their efforts to integrate into the world economy on an equitable basis."
In 1997 an UNCTAD project studied the issues facing the Somali Coastline, the Somali maritime industry and marine ecosystem of the region, taking into account any and all available data. The study did include environmental concerns, an assessment of the depletion of the marine ecosystem as well as the difficulties in implementing provisions of international law and agreements enacted to safeguard these resources. The project also studied the ongoing maritime trade including coastal commercial activities, and did assess the risk imposed on the marine ecosystem.
This was done with a view to making recommendations to enhance the protection and development of marine and coastal resources and the promotion of sustainable economic activities. The project took into account both the unique experience of UNCTAD in Somalia as well as the backstopping capabilities of the organization in the particular areas of transport and trade development.
The Project also examined ways and means to address international interests in the protection of the marine resources, including the ecosystem of the area and any obligation of the United Nations to that effect, keeping in mind chapter 17 of Agenda 21 of UNCED.

In the official report of this project UNCTAD found and recommended in 1998 the following:

Decentralization of ‘fisheries enforcement’ to the community level: a response to the absence of organized government
In a potentially hostile area lacking a national fisheries administration, community empowerment has
filled an institutional vacuum. The driving forces behind community empowerment in fishery enforcement
stem from:

• recognition of the basic property rights problem of an open access fishery and its unlikely resolution
• in the current socio-economic and political context; and
• the precarious state of the fisheries resources, especially lobster and shark.

Somali coastal communities have taken enforcement action against illegal fishing. Two prosecutions
have been undertaken under Islamic Shari’ah law generating in excess of US$1 million which was
reportedly given to the villages apprehending the offending vessels (rather than for use to increase
Surveillance capacity). The international publicity resulting from such prosecutions may act as a deterrent
against continued illegal fishing and ensure compliance by foreign vessels, either with or without a
dubious license.
Challenges facing coastal fishing communities include:

• lack of physical enforcement capacity;
• logistics to gather evidence;
• lack of procedural code for boarding and prosecutions; and
• presence of armed guards on foreign fishing vessels. Source: UNCTAD, 1998

Today in 2009 we have to observe that the coastal defenders actually followed the recommendations and improved their enforcement capacity, logistics and even developed a code of conduct. The effectiveness is recognized worldwide as well as in Somalia itself and even in neighbouring Kenya, where the fish-catch of local communities, whose resources also were depleted by illegal trawlers and purse-seiners over the last 20 years, has significantly recovered and increased.
Unfortunately, the pendulum swung too far and has attracted local and international criminal syndicates, who misuse the capabilities of some renegades of the coastal defenders of Somalia to nowadays commit crimes on the high sea.
The "Anti-Piracy-Response" launched by the military-industrial complex of the U.S. of America, the EU and NATO as well as nearly every nation which has a naval vessel, including newcomers like China and often misleading their taxpayers in order to receive the required naval funding on a multi billion dollar level, however, does not justify to blow every Somali fisherman and every Somali maritime defender out of the water and kill or arrest him. Crime can never be countered by counter-crime and murder in its worldwide recognized definition - as recently committed by a unit of Norwegian naval commandos in the Puntland region of Somalia - is murder and must be prosecuted.
Most underdeveloped countries, who are coastal states, have realized that the real agenda of what had embarked with the global armada and the official legend to counter piracy - on Somalia actually is an attempt to break the sovereignty and integrity of an independent state, which easily could be misused as a precedence to also infringe on the rights of other nations.
In the struggle for the last untapped resources the oil-wars in all fields, the fisheries-wars in all oceans as well as the gold-, diamond- and coltan-wars especially in Africa are effecting the least developed countries the most and with increasingly genocidal brutality and under the most perfidiously disguised deceit.

Open Source Information.

Saward

[Gorillanobaka1977]

Saward...

That`s perfectly true buddy...but unfortunately for Somalies the situation is gonna stay unchanged for a while....

There`s just too much money to be made out of it...

Gorilla

[saward]

Better not mention anything to do with the oil exploration then.

Saward

[saward]

FISHING VESSEL SEIZED OFF RAS HAFUN
Yet unconfirmed reports speak of the capture of a fishing vessel named Al Hilal or Al Halil (not to be confused with the Al Hilal container ship or the Almezaan already held at Garacad).
It was apparently seized off Ras Hafun on the Indian Ocean side of North-Eastern Somalia at about 08h00 local time this morning.
It is a white coloured fishing boat and was apparently heading north when the attack happened and it was taken over by at least 14 Somalis.
The crew list could not yet be obtained, but there are indications that also Indian fishermen could be held on board. The Directorate of Shipping and the Indian High Commissioner were informed.

Open Source Information.

Saward

[saward]

Seized fishing vessel stranded, crew taken ashore
The fishing vessel with Indian and Bangladeshi fishermen on board was seized near Garcad, as we reported yesterday. "Our colleagues seized a Yemeni fishing boat near Hafun on Monday night," Osman confirmed to Reuters today.
Andrew Mwangura of EASAP said: "She is a white coloured fishing boat and was apparently heading north when the attack happened and the vessel was taken over by at least 14 Somali gunmen."
Due to the defective engine and because it could not safely be moored, the boat drifted ashore is now stranded at the remote coast.
The vessel was named as FV AL HILAL, but this is obviously not the real name. It is more likely a nom-du-Guerre for fishing illegally in the Somali waters. No fishing vessel by that name is registered with the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission or Lloyds ship register. Yemeni, Greek and even Libyan connections are in the moment investigated.
Illegal fishermen on hunger strike
After the stranding the crew was taken from the vessel and the fishermen are now being held in the pirate stronghold of Eyl, where their condition is deteriorating rapidly, a local BBC reporter in the region confirmed. He also reported that apparently a number of the hostages have allegedly gone on hunger strike.

Unlike most pirate hostages, they are being held on land instead of on board captured ships.

Open Source Information.

Saward

[saward]

Some background to illegal fishing, this is not just Africa it is in fact worldwide.

Not that long ago when work was to be had as 'net checkers' on European fishing boats.

WEST AFRICA: Helping Pirates to Plunder the Oceans Written by Hilaire Avril
PARIS, Nov 11 (IPS) - West Africa is one of the world's regions most affected by pirate fishers. Illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing has been devastating local livelihoods and ecosystems for decades. National fisheries management authorities are often helpless to protect their maritime resources.

European Union (EU) enforcement mechanisms aimed at preventing the sale of ”stolen” fish on the largest market in the world have so far been unable to stem the influx. And on the rare occasions when pirate fishers are caught, the real beneficiaries of this illicit trade are easily shielded from prosecution.

This is in large part due to the use of flags of convenience, according to a new report from Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), primarily researched in West African coastal countries. The London-based EJF does advocacy work that makes the link between environmental abuses and human rights.

Ships flying flags of convenience are using flags of countries other than the ship owners' countries.

International law requires that all vessels, including fishing boats, fly a country's flag.

States are accountable for the activities of vessels flying their flags. But ”many of these countries lack the resources or the will to monitor and control vessels flying their flag, allowing pirate fishing operations to avoid fisheries regulations and controls,” says the EJF report.

Unable, and sometimes unwilling, to enforce fishing regulations, labour law or environmental guidelines, these countries do not effectively control the fleet flying their state flags. But West African countries that unknowingly host pirate fishers are equally unable to police their own resources.

”West Africa in general is extremely vulnerable to illegal fishing, as several countries are either in a post-conflict situation, or suffer from political instability. They have very limited capacity to patrol their waters,” says Duncan Copeland, who conducted the research.

These deficiencies are not lost on pirate fishers. Disregarding regulations - which either delimit acceptable fishing areas and natural reserves, specify maximum catch quotas and minimum hygiene to transport the fish, or impose labour standards for crews - can be highly profitable to the real owners of these fishing boats.

”Backed by shell companies, joint ventures and hidden owners, flags of convenience reduce the operating costs associated with legal fishing and make it extremely difficult to identify and penalise the real owners of vessels that fish illegally,” the report reads.

”You have companies that are foreign-owned but have African subsidiaries or joint-venture agreements, and they are increasingly Asian companies,” explains Copeland.

In 2005, the World Wildlife Fund commissioned a landmark study titled ”The Changing Nature of High Seas Fishing: How Flags of Convenience provide cover for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing”.

Researched by fishing experts for a year, it claimed that ”many, if not most, of these vessels deliberately register with flags-of-convenience countries to evade conservation and management regulations for high seas fisheries.

”The countries which issue flags of convenience are ultimately responsible for the activities of these vessels on the high seas but turn a blind eye and exercise little or no control over the vessels concerned.”

The study concluded that, according to Lloyd's Register of Ships, more than 1,000 large-scale fishing vessels used flags of convenience, despite illegal fishing being ”one of the most serious threats to the health of the world's fisheries and oceans”.

The threat has not receded since. ”Our report is largely based on research in West Africa in the past few years, investigating the extent of illegal fishing there and finding that many of the vessels were using flags of convenience to hide their identities, reduce their operating costs and avoid prosecution,” according to Copeland.

The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), which monitors seafarers' rights, has been waging a campaign against abusive labour practices on ships flying flags of convenience for more than 60 years. It lists 32 countries as delivering flags of convenience, four of which are in Africa.

According to ITF, these flags provide a means of avoiding labour regulation in the country of real ownership, and ”become a vehicle for paying low wages and forcing long hours of work and unsafe working conditions”.

For well-hidden, anonymous ship owners, the financial incentives to skirt labour and environmental law remain substantial.

The EJF report argues that ”globally, pirate fishing accounts for 10 to 23.5 billion dollars a year, representing between 11 and 26 million tons of fish. It is a highly profitable activity being driven by the enormous global demand for seafood, threatening the future of world fisheries.”

Despite their dubious reputation, obtaining a flag of convenience for one's ship can be done with a few clicks on the internet. Numerous firms located in Panama, Equatorial Guinea or Liberia, for instance, will register the ship on their websites for a few hundred dollars a year.

The practice breaches the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which requires a genuine link between the real owner of a ship and its flag, according to the ITF.

Attesting to the sheer financial logic of open registries, some of the countries granting flags of convenience are themselves landlocked. Slovakia, Mongolia and Bolivia - all listed by the report as states deriving revenue from flags of convenience - have access to the sea.

But even for those states which do have shorelines, a paradox remains. ”One of the things we found interesting was that there are several developing countries who, while being victims of illegal fishing themselves, also have open registries and give flags of convenience,” says Copeland.

”They're seeing very little income from this, compared to the losses caused by illegal fishing,” he says, as ”annual revenues are estimated at three to four million dollars from flagging fishing vessels, a tiny amount when compared to the millions of dollars lost by individual countries and the billions lost globally to such fishing.”

Open Source Information.

Saward

[Gorillanobaka1977]

Very instructive (for a "Land Lover" like me) as always Saward..

Cheers!

[saward]

NATURAL RESOURCES & ARMED FISH POACHERS: Foreign navies entering the 200nm EEZ of Somalia and foreign helicopters and troops must respect the fact that especially all wildlife is protected by Somali national as well as by international laws and that the protection of the marine resources of Somalia from illegally fishing foreign vessels should be an integral part of the anti-piracy operations. Likewise the navies must adhere to international standards and not pollute the coastal waters with oil, ballast water or waste from their own ships but help Somalia to fight against any dumping of any waste (incl. diluted, toxic or nuclear waste). So far and though the AU as well as the UN has called since long on other nations to respect the 200 nm EEZ, only now the two countries (Spain and France) to which the most notorious vessels and fleets are linked have come up with a declaration that they will respect the 200 nm EEZ of Somalia but so far not any of the navies operating in the area pledged to stand against illegal fishing. So far not a single illegal fishing vessel has been detained by the naval forces, though they had been even informed about several actual cases, where an intervention would have been possible. Illegally operating Tuna fishing vessels (many from South Korea, some from Greece and China) carry now armed personnel and force their way into the Somali fishing grounds - uncontrolled or even protected by the naval forces mandated to guard the Somali waters against any criminal activity, which included arms carried by foreign fishing vessels in Somali waters.

Open Source Information.

Saward