Liberia's artisanal fisheries sector faces significant potential challenges as the livelihoods of nearly 60,000 local fishermen are at stake due to proposed plans for industrial shrimp trawling in the country.
TheLiberia Artisanal Fishermen Association (LAFA), a group of local fishermen in coastal communities, has raised concerns about the potential threat this poses to the safety, food security, and unique marine life of Liberia.
In response to the plans to develop an industrial shrimp trawl fishery, LAFA has published an open letter urging the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA) to reconsider its proposedDraft Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) and protect Liberia's coastal communities.
On April 2, 2024, LAFA and other fisheries stakeholders were invited by NaFAA to participate in the validation of a Draft Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) for a multi-species deep-water shrimp fishery. This validation was part of the World BankLiberia Sustainable Management Fisheries Project (LSMFP).
LAFA refused to validate the plan, citing a lack of consultation and the unfavorable prospect of the initiative. In aletter addressed to Emma Metieh Glassco, the Director General of NaFAA, the group emphasizes that the initiative is unsustainable and that artisanal fishing is central to the national economy, food security, and cultural heritage of Liberia, employing over 57,000 fishers and supporting many others in the fishing industry.
"This will fail to deliver a sustainable or profitable deep-water shrimp fishery, cause irreparable damage to fragile marine ecosystems, jeopardize the livelihoods of over 57,000 people engaged in small-scale fisheries, and lead to an increase in conflict between artisanal and industrial vessels," said LAFA's president, James N. Blamo, in a statement released on Tuesday, June 25. "Artisanal fishing is in the lifeblood of Liberia's coastal economy, central to national food security and a key part of Liberia's rich cultural heritage."
NaFAA's proposed FMP aims to expand industrial bottom trawl fishing for high-value shrimp, but LAFA is skeptical about its sustainability. Critics say the FMP lacks sufficient data to assess the impact of shrimp trawling on the marine ecosystem or fisheries, raising concerns about overexploitation of resources and inadequate management measures.
The FMP, developed with support from the World Bank's Sustainable Management of Fisheries Project, outlines recommendations that would pave the way for the expansion of this fishery, which is valued at US$80 per kilogram.
LAFA is also critical of the FMP's provision for exclusive access to one company for five years, which they believe to be inequitable. They advocate for prioritizing artisanal fishers' access and involving them in decision-making processes.
The fishing sector is huge, employing a sizable number of fishermen, fish processors, and fishmongers, most of whom are women. Almost 60% of Liberia's population lives on the coast and fish contributes to the animal protein needs of 80% of the total population.
"It is vitally important that Liberia's marine resources are managed sustainably and protected from destructive industrial fishing methods, such as industrial bottom trawling," Blamo said.
The FMP acknowledges that limited data from experimental shrimp fishing activities indicate that the marine resources are already overexploited. The FMP proposes measures that LAFA has deemed insufficient and not meeting international standards for precautionary or ecosystem-based management.
Looters in Disguise
The Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangement (CFFA), an advocacy group for fishing communities, in a publication, described Senegalese trawlers, SOKONE, KANBAL III, and others with links with Senegal, as looters disguised as scientific apprentices. The SOPERKA is one of the trawlers that are poised to benefit from the proposed FMP.
The draft management plan is based on the unpublished results from the experimental fishing undertaken in 2021 and 2022 by Senegalese trawlers. Back in 2021, CFFA says it questioned whether these trawlers, the SOKONE, the AMINE, and the KANBAL III, belonging to the Spanish company Grupo Pereira, flagged to Senegal through the joint venture company SOPERKA, were doing "experimental fishing or pillaging" of Liberian resources. The draft management plan answers: between 2021 and 2022, these two trawlers have been shamelessly pillaging Liberian deep-water shrimp resources, whilst bringing very little data of use to Liberian fisheries managers.
"When describing the actions undertaken by SOPERKA for their so-called experimental fishing, the draft management plan reads like a catalog of don'ts," CFFA said on its website, adding that the data they provided to the consultant who wrote the plan, James R. Wilson, showed the vessels operated for 127 days. "However," hehighlights, "while doing this analysis, it was discovered that the vessel SOKONE had not reported 2022 data. After several requests from the consultant and NaFAA, the company sent an incomplete data set which the consultant did not use, because it contained barely half of the days that he knew they fished (about 85 days), using estimates from Global Fishing Watch."
The consultant further points out that: "the part of the species assemblage that is caught along with the target species, the deep sea shrimp, is poorly known, in part because the data from 2021 to 2022 were not collected systematically during the experimental fishery."
From a manifest obtained from the vessel SOKONE and a file furnished by SOPERKA, the consultant continues: "We do knowthat some of the kept species Included cephalopods, crab, and hake. There were no names for rejected species."
If the point of this "experimental fishing" was to improve the knowledge of the state of the deep-sea shrimp resources and the impacts of fishing on the wider eco-system, then, clearly, the whole exercise has been a failure, as is confirmed by the consultant: "The agreement between NaFAA and SOPERKA led to a data collection effort that was flawed, which limited the subsequent analysis that could be done. The lack of rigor in the data collection is a serious issue that impeded the analysis.
There were other gaps in the data: typographical errors, confusing recording of
depth, time imprecise, incomplete naming of species, especially the non-targeted ones."
The vessels who took part in the experimental fishing never docked in Liberia, even for inspection, CFFA said. When the catches were landed in Dakar or Abidjan, a Liberian fisheries inspector was present to record the quantities of landed species. Their costs of travel, including daily subsistence allowances, were borne by the vessel owner.
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However, "because these vessels did not make dedicated trips to Liberia, and also fished in other zones, it remains unclear how the catches were differentiated at the quay.
This system may lead to under-reporting of catches," CFFA quotes the consultant as saying. This is an issue not only from the point of view of fisheries management but also for establishing the fees and royalties due to NaFAA.
Blamo, in his statement, highlights the importance of including artisanal fishers in consultations, as mandated by the Liberian Fishery Act, and calls for a delay in fishery development until accurate data and ecosystem-based management are in place.
He also notes that collisions between industrial and artisanal fishing vessels have already led to economic hardship, injuries, and deaths for local fishers in Liberia.
Meanwhile, LAFA urges NaFAA to secure the Inshore Exclusion Zone for artisanal fishing activities, prioritize the development of low-impact fisheries, and ensure the welfare of coastal communities.
The concerns raised by LAFA underscore the need for sustainable management practices that protect the livelihoods and marine resources of Liberia's artisanal fishing communities -- hopes that the Draft FMP lacks, ensuring no equitable access to resources, and the need for more comprehensive data and ecosystem-based management practices in preserving Liberia's marine ecosystem and artisanal fishing sector is more than wanting.
