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Disaggregating illegal fishing losses for the 22 countries of the West African Coast

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Abstract

The 22 countries of the Western African coast constitute one of the world’s most vulnerable regions for illegal fishing. Much is known about the region’s losses to illegal fishing, but less about the losses experienced by the region’s individual countries when compared in relation to each other. Guided by environmental criminology, these losses are examined in terms of lost protein and lost revenue. Seven of the countries suffer loss of protein. Chinese vessels are the most prevalent predators, fishing illegally in six of these countries. Only three of the 22 countries suffer loss of revenue, most of which is lost to vessels from other West African countries. Guinea and Guinea Bissau experience both problems. Only a handful of countries suffer disproportionately more than the rest of the countries in the region. Country-specific policy solutions should be devised to address the problems in these vulnerable target countries.

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Notes

  1. Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo.

  2. MRAG (2010)’s study of illegal fishing in eight countries (Cape Verde, the Gambia, Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone) that used FAO methodology followed the steps of an environmental criminology assessment.

  3. Many studies in the past have used unreported catches as a measure of illegal catches (see, for example, Pramod et al. (2017) and Ganapathiraju et al. (2019)), because unreported removals are essentially unauthorized/illegal.

  4. Available at http://www.itfglobal.org/en/transport-sectors/seafarers/in-focus/flags-of-convenience-campaign/.

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This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminal Justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, North Hall-2114, 524 West 59th Street, New York, NY, 10019, USA

    Gohar A. Petrossian

  2. School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University-Newark, 123 Washington Street, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Ronald V. Clarke

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  2. Ronald V. Clarke
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Correspondence to Gohar A. Petrossian.

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Petrossian, G.A., Clarke, R.V. Disaggregating illegal fishing losses for the 22 countries of the West African Coast. Maritime Studies 19, 445–455 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-020-00197-9

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