24
Figure 7: Number of IUU fishing vessels incriminated between 1980 and 2003. Source: Based on Sea Around Us IUU database;
www.seaaroundus.org Some European Union EU actions may have unintentionally encouraged IUU fishing. Between
1994 and 2010, the EU gave more than €26 million to over 130 Italian, French and Spanish fishing boats, many of which had already been convicted of serious infringements
21
. In 2005 and 2006 Spain, received 46 percent of the EUs aid and public money. In June 2010, the
Spanish fisheries company Albacora, that owned the Albacore Uno vessel, was fined €5 million by the US government for illegal fishing in US waters. Four months later, the Spanish
government gave it €307,000 to improve its security to protect its fleet from the risk of Indian Ocean piracy
22
. Similarly, the European Commission banned imports of fish from Sri Lanka as it had failed to tackle illegal fishing by its vessels FishFile Lite_2014. On June 17, 2014, US
President Barack Obama established a Presidential Task Force on Combating Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing and Seafood Fraud
23
to ensure that seafood sold in the United States was legally and sustainably caught and to combat the negative impacts of
seafood fraud.
4.5 IUU Fishing and Links to Piracy:
The problem of illegal fishing is considered a form of piracy on natural resources and is often coined “pirate fishing”. It is also believed to be the root cause of Somali piracy Bawumia Sumaila, 2010.
Both piracy and illegal fishing take place in a situation where there is lapse of governance and centralized control as is the case in Somalia. Its difficult to tell how many pirates were earlier fishermen.
It’s perceived by fishermen and foreign experts that many small fishermen have turned to foreign illegal fishing vessels and big merchant ships Schbley and Rosenau 2013. This is because their fishing grounds
have been wiped out and their fishing nets were destroyed by much larger illegal foreign vessels. As a result they claim that they were not able to earn a living from fishing.
21
http:www.slowfood.comslowfishpaginedeunewsdettaglio_news.lasso?-idn=19 . Accessed on August 27, 2014.
22
http:www.slowfood.comslowfishpaginedeunewsdettaglio_news.lasso?-idn=19 .
Accessed, on 08272014.
23
White House Press Release, June 17, 2014.
25
The presence of the anti-piracy task force off the Somali coasts might have minimized piracy but not illegal fishing. This has not been helpful to the local fishing communities. Fishermen reported that their
livelihoods have been negatively impacted both by illegal fishing and by anti-piracy patrol activities. The illegal fishing vessels and anti-piracy patrol navies mistake local fishermen for pirates. The fishermen
alleged that they are shot at by IUU fishing vessels and anti-piracy navies during their usual fishing trips. This has caused them to reduce their fishing trips thus affected their livelihoods.
IUU fishing and piracy are terrible experience for Somalia. The former deprived the country of its fisheries resources and the latter damaged the reputation of the country, ravaged its economy and
exposed its security. They can only be unraveled jointly by Somalia and interested parties, including: the foreign navies in the region, Gulf of Aden and Western Indian Ocean littoral states and relevant
international organizations. In Somalia proper all actors are duty bound to join in responsibly.
The causes of illegal fishing can be addressed, first, by legislating maritime and fisheries laws, taking necessary steps to enforce these laws nationally, and signing international conventions on eliminating
the threat of IUU fishing. The problem of piracy cannot be solved militarily. The root causes must be addressed, including youth employment and peace and security issues. While collaboration of all
stakeholders in the fight to eliminate maritime piracy and IUU fishing is vital, this is a Somali national issue and has to be initiated and led by Somali authorities. While only 21 percent of respondents in our
survey either strongly agree or agree that foreign piracy patrols protected foreign fishers, 74 percent either agreed or strongly agreed that anti-piracy patrols affected their livelihood.
4.6 Reports on IUU Fishing
