Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing

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6.0 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 6.1 The Somali Fishery

The Somali marine fishery sector can be characterized as predominantly small scale. Fishermen use open fiberglass skiffs from three to six meters in length and most are motorized; equipped with outboard or to a lesser extent, inboard engines. The average fisherman has been fishing for approximately 15 years, has lived in the communities and fished there for over two decades, and is on average 38 years-old. Most have an average of four to five years of formal schooling and live in households with approximately eight members. More than half own their fishing boats, fish within 50 km of their communities and over a third fish within 10 km. Seasonal migration of fishermen is minimal and mainly reported in Somaliland. Around half the fishermen are members of fishing cooperatives. A variety of gears such as gill nets, purse seines, long lines, hand lines and traps are used to exploit large and small pelagic fish stocks as well as demersal fisheries. There are two peak fishing seasons per year: March-April and September-October. The number of fishing days per year varies, from approximately 140 to 200 days. Catches average between 65 to 120 kg per day depending on the locality. The average daily income from fishing is related to boat ownership, where boat owners report average incomes of US 56.04 versus US 40.54 for non- owners. Most catch is sold, but between two to nine percent is retained for subsistence needs. This translates to 2-6 kg of fish per fishermen helping to feed households with an average of seven to nine people. More than three quarters of fishermen say that fish is the biggest source of protein in their household. Mackerel and yellowfin tuna are the most common pelagic fish species caught, whereas emperors, snapper and grouper are the most commonly caught bottom dwelling demersals. Most fish are marketed to local communities on the landing sites, although in Puntland, many are sold at-sea to Yemeni traders, and in Somaliland, more than half are sold beyond the community.

6.2 Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing

Overall, the analysis of the survey data has indicated a great deal of perceived illegal fishing by Somalis themselves and foreigners. Both domestic and foreign IUU fishing will need to be addressed if Somalia’s fisheries are to be managed properly and for maximum benefit of the Somali people. On the domestic side of fishery, much of the small-scale catch is landed locally. However, in most cases, the details on these landings do not seem to be recorded or reported to authorities. Approximately 87 percent of fishermen said that there were no reporting requirements for fish landed and approximately 95 percent stated that there was no requirement in the recent past. The best evidence of this comes from an examination of FAO databases lacking almost three decades of statistics on Somalia. Most reports of annual landings from Somalia quote a figure of around 30,000 MT with the sustainable yield estimated at around 120,000-200,000 MT per year. These figures lead many people to believe that fish stocks in Somalia, unlike in most other countries, have great potential for the expansion of further landings. However, given reports of foreign IUU fishing in Somali waters that is valued at 81 around US 300 million per year, and the fact that most locally caught fish is also not recorded, any presumptions about under-exploited stocks must be viewed with suspicion. For instance, if we look at reported daily landings by Puntland fishermen of 119kgday, extrapolate to an annual catch based on a reported 142 days fishing per year and multiply by the estimated 6,500 fishermen in Puntland according to FAO, this translates to 110,000 MT of fish caught annually just in Puntland. This is more than the usually quoted figure fish landed in the whole of Somalia. There is reason to believe that under reporting of local landings is quite high. This is a challenge to most developing nations and particularly to countries like Somalia that have extensive coastlines and a large number of small-scale landing sites. FAO provides recommendations on how to address this problem with various statistical sampling frames mentioned earlier in this report. Our survey shows that fishermen believe that there are still plenty of fish in the sea but also that there are too many local and international fishermen chasing them. More than half say that catches and income from fishing have declined. These qualitative indicators suggest that the local fishing industry may already be declining. This study was not able to clarify whether these trends were an allocation issue – as local perceptions suggest foreign IUU fishing has been increasing – or down to declining fisheries infrastructure that stops fish being moved to market beyond local communities andor stops fishing vessels and engines from being operational. Years of conflict hampered the maintenance of vital infrastructure.

6.3 At-Sea Transfers of Catch