Fighting illegal fishing: the deal helping to close 'the black hole in the sea'

Fighting illegal fishing: the deal helping to close 'the black hole in the sea'

Source: euronews

12/21/2021

West Africa has been called "the black hole in the sea" due to the huge amount of illegal fishing that takes place in the region.

This unregulated fishing is estimated to cost billions of euros and is thought to have resulted in hundreds of thousands of local fishing jobs being lost.

The EU imports more than 100 million euros worth of fish - mainly processed cod - from Ivory Coast alone.

Abidjan is West Africa’s largest port. The monitoring of fishing activity here has been significantly stepped up thanks to EU funding made possible through a Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement.

In exchange for allowing EU vessels, mostly from Spain, Portugal and France, to fish in its waters, Ivory Coast gets around 680,000 euros a year.

The EU’s ambassador to Ivory Coast, Jobst von Kirchmann, insists such cooperation between third countries is vital.

"You don't want to eat fish and get sick, that's one thing. But besides that, you also don't want to import a problem into the European Union when purchasing fish - such as illegal fishing, or other potential problems, he says.