New Delhi, July 30 (IANS) China declined to sign a multilateral agreement, namely Mombasa Declaration, aimed at curbing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing at the Our Ocean Conference, a new report has said, alleging that the country is the world’s worst illegal fishing offender.
Beijing commands the world’s largest distant-water fishing fleet, the report from the States based ADF (Africa Defense Forum) said, and yet China rejected the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency underscoring bilateral tensions in this sector.
Seven African countries — Cameroon, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, the Republic of the Congo and Somalia — signed the agreement along with other signatories such as Belgium, Chile, the Dominican Republic, France, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru and South Korea.
The declaration supports a global charter that seeks to modernise vessel registries, publish fishing licences, authorisations, access agreements and quota allocations.
All industrial fishing vessels will be mandated to hold unique vessel identifiers and information on the beneficial owners of them will be collected to fix accountability on illegal fishing violators.
The report cited Emelia Arthur, Ghana’s fisheries minister saying that the existence of households in his country depends on fish. “Over 60 per cent of our animal protein comes from fish, and 10 per cent of our population depends on the fisheries value chain for livelihood,” Arthur added.
West Africa lost up to nearly $9.4 billion annually to illegal fishing by Chinese vessels. Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania lost up to $142.8 million annually from 2015-2021 due to illegal shrimp and tuna fishing, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Chinese vessels commit myriad fishing violations, including bottom trawling, which involves dragging a net along the sea floor, indiscriminately scooping up all manner of marine life. This kills juvenile fish, leading to declining fish stocks and destroys ecosystems.
The report alleged that Taiwanese representatives were not allowed to attend the Global charter event due to Chinese pressure.
“China prohibits its diplomatic partners from maintaining formal ties with Taiwan and holds considerable leverage over Kenya, particularly regarding debt related to the Chinese-built Standard Gauge Railway,” it added.
—IANS
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