Illegal Fishing on Chinese Vessels in African Waters of Southwest Indian Ocean

 The London-based Environmental Justice Foundation published in April 2024 a report titled "Tide of Injustice: Exploitation and Illegal Fishing on Chinese Vessels in the Southwest Indian Ocean."

China's distant-water fleet (DWF) is by far the world's largest.  This report maps the presence and activities of the Chinese DWF in the Southwest Indian Ocean, which includes the exclusive economic zones of the coastal states Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique and the Indian Ocean islands of Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles.  Illegal fishing and human rights abuses were found to be commonplace on Chinese vessels throughout the region.

Chinese vessels were linked to 86 unique cases (relating to 177 suspected or confirmed offences) of illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing or human rights abuses within the Southwest Indian Ocean region between 2017 and 2023.  

Key Players in the Indian Ocean Region

 The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published in June 2023 a major study titled "Mapping the Indian Ocean Region" by Darshana M. Baruah, Nitya Labh, and Jessica Greely.

The study treats the Indian Ocean region as one continuous theater and looks at the major players, security challenges, and other factors that shape the region.  It demonstrates how the Indian Ocean's economic, political, military, and geographic features interact to create a single geopolitical arena.  

Coincidentally, the U.S. Department of State posted on 30 May 2023 a fact sheet titled "U.S. Relationship with the Indian Ocean Rim Association and Commitment to the Indian Ocean Region."

The release of the fact sheet was tied to the reopening after 27 years of the U.S. embassy in the Seychelles and the visit to Seychelles, Mauritius, and Comoros by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma.

Western Africa's Missing Fish

London-based Overseas Development Institute published in June 2016 a report titled "Western Africa's Missing Fish: The Impacts of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing and Under-Reporting Catches by Foreign Fleets" by Alfonso Daniels, Miren Gutierrez, Gonzalo Fanjul, Arantxa Guerena, Ishbel Matheson, and Kevin Watkins.

The report concludes that overfishing in the world's oceans has reached catastrophic levels. Many major fish stocks are in decline. Some species are being pushed towards extinction. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is heavily implicated in overfishing. As much as one fifth of the world's fisheries catch may originate from IUU activity. Western Africa is at the epicenter of the tragedy. About 84 percent of the fish exported from western Africa leave the region in large refrigerated containers. China has the world's largest refrigerated fleet followed by Japan, Spain, South Korea, Russia, and Taiwan. The catches of the Chinese distant-water fleets are almost completely undocumented and unreported.

Bloomberg published on 18 July 2016 a short article titled "Cameroon Impounds Chinese-manned Vessel for Illegal Fishing" by Divine Ntaryike Jr. The article underscores the nature of the problem.