Afrika Nå - Do old Norwegian fishing vessels cause overfishing in African waters?

Afrika Nå

A new report to be launched on 27 April reveals a trend that has received little attention in Norway: the large number of old Norwegian fishing vessels in West African waters. After having been used for decades in Norwegian waters, fishing companies along the west coast of Norway export their old ships to Africa, where they are used to catch fish stocks that are highly fragile, often in countries with weak fisheries management. The exports thus risk leading to depletion of fish stocks that African people depend on. The report has analysed hundreds of vessels that have been removed from the Norwegian Ship Register over the last 22 years. A large part of the ships end up fishing for Moroccan interests in waters of occupied Western Sahara, which is in itself highly controversial. The trend of exports of the old Norwegian ships is seen in relation to changes in management of fish stocks domestically in Norway. The report is a co-publication by The Norwegian Council for Africa, The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara and The Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature. The publication is funded by Norad.