A recent study conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Fishery Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic (CECAF) has found that small pelagic resources off the coast of Northwest Africa are heavily overexploited.
The report urges several action items to combat the issue, "such as biological rest, zoning, setting minimum sizes, and capacity management to improve the resilience of these resources in the context of climate change."
The report specifically described the state of sardine, round sardinella, flat sardinella, Atlantic horse mackerel, and ethmalosa stocks as alarming and suggested a 60 percent reduction in fishing effort to decrease overexploitation of these species.
Drawing on the CECAF research, the Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements (CFFA) produced a policy brief in relation to the issue. The group then presented this brief in advance of a December meeting of the E.U.-Mauritania Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Joint Committee, which included renegotiating the two entities’ existing sustainable fisheries partnership agreement (SFPA).
Though Mauritania is not the only country in Northwest Africa, a renewed deal with the E.U. presents an opportunity to institute codified change and reverse the alarming trends, the brief said.
To do so effectively, though, requires observation and monitoring, according to CECAF, which noted that interest in the work of fishery observation in Mauritania has dwindled due to the job’s poor payment and difficult working conditions.
In response, both CECAF and CFFA stated that fishery observation must offer “better pay and training conditions to encourage young persons to accept to embark onboard fishing vessels” but also work to develop incentives that would convince shipowners to comply with their obligation to take observers onboard per the SFPA.
According to the report, many ships, particularly Latvian and Lithuanian pelagic trawlers, currently do not meet these obligations. CFFA recommends that failure to take observers onboard when they are available should be penalized with withdrawal of E.U. fishing authorization.
Another recommendation to reverse the trends was to reduce bycatch limits authorized by the current SFPA, with particular attention paid toward octopus, which makes up a high percentage of bycatch in the area but is also a species of high commercial value to small-scale Mauritanian fishers.
“[Octopus] must be reserved for national [Mauritanian] fisheries, particularly small-scale fisheries,” CFFA said. “The rule is simple: European vessels must not have access to octopus, either as a target or as bycatch.”
Ultimately, CFFA recommended that any new agreement ensure a breakdown, by species, of catches – both target and bycatch – for all fleets.
