The marine fisheries sector plays a crucial role for coastal nations across Africa. The fisheries resources significantly contribute to food security, income generation, and economic welfare. This resource is an important source for;
- animal protein, many coastal communities consume fish as their main source of protein;
- industry and trade that generates direct and indirect employment; and
- as a source of income to government budgets through fishing agreements, license fees, and from the activities of distant water fishing fleets which are serviced at regional ports.
Marine fisheries support the livelihoods of millions of citizens along Africa's 30,490 km coastline. The most common catch is small pelagic species such as herrings and sardines with the large pelagic tuna like species also making a significant contribution, especially in the Indian Ocean. Marine catches also include demersal species such as cod, hake, haddock, and crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters, shrimps, prawns, krill and molluscs such as abalones, conchs, oysters, mussels and scallops.
Fishing in African waters managed by 200nm Exclusive Economic Zones where generally private licenses, joint ventures and access agreements with foreign vessels are the means of managing the larger commercial vessels, while many smaller coastal fisheries are still open access. West Africa is one of the most diverse, and economically important, fishing zones in the world. Fisheries in the West African marine region, where total landings of fish have risen from 600,000 tons in 1960 to 4.5 million by 2000 have made it one of the most important sources of foreign exchange in the region.
Fish is also a highly traded commodity and it is one of the leading export commodities for Africa, with an annual export value of nearly USD 3 billion. In addition to its direct food value, fish also contributes indirectly to Africa’s food self-sufficiency through trade and exports to the European Union, Asia and other countries. The majority of the beneficiaries from these commercial fisheries are private sector fishers, fish processors and traders. Players in the fisheries sector have created relationships with international, local, national and regional trade systems in Africa and around the world.
Exploitation of Africa’s marine fishery resources has followed an increasing general trend observed in recent years. From the combination of heavy fishing pressure by artisanal fleets and by foreign industrial fishing vessels, some of them practicing Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, many fish stocks are highly or over exploited, creating a worrying situation for sustainable use of these resources. In addition, the effects of climate change which may modifying the habitats, distribution and productivity of marine species is a factor that is becoming of increasing importance.
In Africa, the capacity of most coastal nations to utilize their coastal and marine assets, while simultaneously protecting them from degradation and exploitation, is lacking. This has created a lot of challenges for African Marine Fisheries. The governance of commercial fisheries, particularly relating to industrial fishing by foreign boats supplying markets in Europe and Asia, is frequently undermined by a lack of transparency and accountability. Institutional quality is one of the key factors in the ability of a country to improve governance and manage corruption. Despite the socio-economic importance of fisheries resources to developing countries, often national fisheries institutions are under resourced and face challenging management situations.
The Partnership for African Fisheries will attempt to address these challenges by supporting an emerging political cadre in defining processes that will strengthen Africa’s capacity to consider, determine and implement responsive policy reforms in fisheries governance and trade to ensure that wealth generation and social and environmental benefits are sustained in an enduring fashion.
The following sources were used to compile this the FAO website www.FAO.org [1] and the AfDB Fisheries Portfolio Review, 2008 NFDS.
