Unregulated Fishing: Who Denies Kenya KSh 12b In Potential Blue Economy Income From Indian Ocean

Kenya and its neighbouring countries bordering the Indian Ocean continue to lose much in blue economy resources.

Over the years, this has been attributed to Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activities.

According to the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, an agency, the country’s marine fisheries have the potential to produce 150,000 to 300,000 metric tons (MT) of fish every year.

How much does Kenya lose in illegal fishing?

However, the number is cut through illegal fishing conducted by over 75% of the world’s industrial fishing vessels.

Data from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) showed that Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania lose $142.8 million (KSh 18.8 billion) of potential income every year due to IUU.

In 2023, President William Ruto revealed that Kenya loses about $97 million (KSh 12.8 billion) a year to foreign boats fishing without permission, the EastAfrican reported.

Is China the main facilitator of illegal fishing?

Different studies and reports on IUU continue to implicate China, a major state actor responsible for illegal fishing worldwide.

China's Distant Water Fishing fleet stands out from other nations due to its size, behaviour, and geopolitical purpose, Vifindia.org wrote.

A Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) report indicated that foreign-owned vessels with China, Seychelles, Italy, Taiwan, and Hong Kong flags are appearing multiple times on the tracking site, some recording more than 50,000 fishing hours within Kenyan waters.

This deprives the country of between 11 million and 26 million tonnes of seafood annually.

Chinese government subsidises its Distant Water Fishing (DWF) fleet with an estimated $6 billion (KSh 791.3 billion) to $7 billion (KSh 923.5 billion annually.

The subsidies enhance the DWF fleet to larger and more advanced fishing vessels with greater endurance and seaworthiness, larger nets, and more powerful engines.

According to Reportika, Chinese vessels fished in 80 countries for more than 3 million hours in 2019 and 2021, including countries in the Indian Ocean Region, Africa, South America, Russia, and Oceania.

More than 60% of China’s vessels were involved in IUU fishing worldwide during the same period.

"The Chinese DWF is often found guilty of violating the domestic laws of the respective countries and the UNCLOS, indulging in targeting endangered species, falsifying licenses and documentation, espionage and reconnaissance activities, seizing territories, generating a lot of sea waste, and violating EEZs of other nations," read the report in part.

Who licenses marine fishing?

Kenya Fisheries Service (KFS) carries a background check to ensure it has not been involved in irregular, illegal or unregulated activities (IIU).

KFS then issues licences to vessels that have passed the checks.

However, according to reports, fishing licensing has always been secret, with the number of licensed vessels remaining undisclosed.

This raises questions about whether regulators collaborate with the Chinese vessels involved in IUU.

Does KFS and Kenya Guard have a hand in helping Chinese fishermen do illegal fishing? Is someone being bribed to allow the Chinese vessels to undermine regulations? Is corruption involved?

Are there measures to end illegal fishing?

In 2019, the Kenyan government signed an agreement on port state measures to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (Fao).

However, the measures defined in the agreement are yet to bear fruits.

The country launched a new Coast Guard Service (CGS) to fight rampant illegal fishing.

Kenya has embraced other African fisheries management initiatives, including the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission and the Indian Ocean Tuna Fisheries Commission.

These were meant to strengthen CGS to ensure sustainable development and enhanced governance of the country’s marine fishery resources

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been working towards ending harmful fuel subsidies countries pay to finance their distant-water fishing fleets.

However, this seems effortless in fighting against IUU supported by world superpowers like China in the Indian Ocean.

The writer is a Blue Economy expert. The views expressed here are the writer’s and do not in any way represent the position of TUKO.co.ke.