MarCNoWA to intensify the fight against IUU fishing in North and West Africa

The Marine and Coastal Areas Management in North and West Africa (MarCNoWA) project will regularly provide fishing vessel traffic information about some fishing vessels operating in the North and West African waters. This is action is to provide the needed information to key stakeholders such as regional fisheries bodies and national agencies mandated to promote sustainable fisheries initiatives.

The report will be based on data derived from Automatic Identification System (AIS) collected from satellite and terrestrial stations and made available via Spire's (formerly exactEarth's) constellation of satellites. It tends to enhance the fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. An estimated $23.5 billion worth is attributed to IUU fishing annually worldwide and Africa accounts for over $2.3 billion of it. Studies show that illegal fishing amounts to the equivalent of 65% of the legal reported catch from West Africa and poses serious concerns for food security, and the economy in the region.

Transhipment at Sea. (Photo courtesy of Greenpeace)

AIS was designed and deployed on vessels to provide position, identification and other information about a ship to other ships automatically. The system is very useful for monitoring fishing vessels especially, in instances where there are no existing Vessel Monitoring systems (VMS). The information derived from AIS can provide very useful preliminary insights that can be further investigated by national authorities poised to sustainably manage their fisheries resources.

All ships with a gross tonnage of 300 or more that are engaged in international voyages, cargo ships with a gross tonnage of 500 or more that are not engaged in international voyages, and all passenger ships, regardless of size, are required by SOLAS regulation to be equipped with AIS. The requirement became effective for all ships in December 2004. Except in cases where the protection of navigational information is provided by international agreements, norms, or standards, ships equipped with AIS must keep it operational at all times.

 

Nauticast Inland AIS Transponder make ACR type R-4-203 seen on Europort 2009 (S.J. de Waard)

While the original purpose of AIS was solely collision avoidance, many other maritime applications have grown from this such as marine protection, search and rescue, navigation aids, and fleet and cargo tracking. Using transponders onboard each vessel, marine tracking uses AIS data to automatically and routinely transmit information to other vessels about things like ship speed, position, route, and type.

AIS traffic – View from space (Source: Kvaver.com)

The report will cover all 18 beneficiary coastal countries under the MarCNoWA project. They are Benin, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Togo in West Africa; and Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, and Egypt in North Africa. The MarCNoWA project is implemented by a consortium of 10 partners in North and West Africa and it is one of the eight consortia in Africa implementing the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES & Africa) programme. Phase 2 of the GMES and Africa Programme is co-funded by the African Union Commission and the European Union.

Map of Africa showing the coverage area of MarCNoWA

Making use of AIS data would greatly increase efficiency in gathering information about fishing operations at sea for enhanced conservation of marine living resources. Application of AIS data is cost-effective since it does not require the huge infrastructure needed for vessel tracking as observed in other vessel monitoring systems. 

Institutions or organisations that are interested in the fishing vessel reports are required to register via the Registration_Link here. The GMES and Africa Project at the University of Ghana is reachable via email (rmc@ug.edu.Gh) to assist coastal countries regarding the monitoring of fishing vessels.