Dakar, 19 Feb (APS) – Twenty percent of the world’s illicit, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities are conducted in the seven West African countries of the Subregional Fisheries Commission (SRPS), an organization, according to its permanent secretary, Khallahi Brahim, uses legal instruments, state capacity building and joint fisheries surveillance operations to eradicate it.
« Our sub-region attracts vessels that practice IUU fishing. There are statistics according to which 20% of IUU fishing activities are carried out in our sub-region, » said Mr. Brahim in an interview with the PHA.
The Subregional Fisheries Commission was created in 1985 by Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone, with a view to « harmonizing » their fisheries policies.
« The Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission realized very early on the extent of this practice, IUU fishing. She has made it her workhorse and is trying to remedy it, » said Mr. Brahim.
According to him, the fight against IUU fishing is carried out in the countries of the CSRP along three axes.
The first axis is to develop and implement legal instruments, including the Convention on the Right of Prosecution and the Convention on the Monitoring, Control and Supervision of Fishing Areas, he said.
Strengthening the capacity of the Member States of the CSPC to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is the second axis. « We are working to build our States’ capacities in training and equipment, » explained Khallahi Brahim.
According to him, the last axis is to carry out joint operations to monitor fishing areas. « It is a matter of borrowing naval equipment from the member countries of the CSRP, in the company of fisheries inspectors, to do control and surveillance work […] It is something extremely important, » added Mr. Brahim.
The Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission has become better known in Africa and beyond the continent, thanks to these surveillance activities, according to him.
By dint of fighting INN fishing along these three axes, « we have accumulated quite important know-how, which has allowed us to work with several partners, including Luxembourg. Partners with whom we implemented a first project in the 2000s. We then worked with the World Bank on the implementation of a well-known and very important project, » he said.
According to its permanent secretary, the CSRP has implemented a third project to protect fisheries in the countries of the region, with the collaboration of the European Union (EU).
It is preparing another project, which will be devoted to the protection of the oceans, an initiative to which the EU will contribute.
« In forty years, we have remained at the service of the preservation and sustainable management of the oceans »
The Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission has developed several legal instruments, which it has implemented since its creation, to protect the fisheries resources common to its Member States, recalled its Permanent Secretary.
According to him, the regional organization has begun by equipting itself with legal instruments to promote the collaboration of member countries in fisheries surveillance.
Thus, in 1993, the CSPR adopted the Convention on Minimum Conditions of Access and the Convention on the Right of Prosecution, which authorizes its Member States to pursue any foreign vessel on the high seas, if it violates the laws governing their territorial waters.
« In 2025, we adopted a new convention on the monitoring, control and surveillance of fisheries. It is very important for the Subregional Fisheries Commission, because it makes it possible to coordinate the fight against IUU fishing in our countries, » explained Khallahi Brahim.
« Who talks about fishing talks at the same time about the sustainability of fisheries resources, their sustainable exploitation […] In forty years of existence, we have remained at the service of the preservation and sustainable management of the oceans in West Africa, » he said.
source : aps
