What do you do if you live in Sierra Leone, illegal fishing by people from other countries is rampant and jeopardizing the supply of fish that feeds your own country, and the fishermen sent by China are the worst offenders…but “the government is hesitant to act as it has a close relationship with China”?
One thing you do is take the law into your own hands. Another is participate in “ongoing community resistance,” which seems to mean persistent and widespread protest (“Sierra Leone’s China relations block targeted action against illegal fishing,” Institute for Security Studies, December 2, 2024).
High-value fish species like bonga, snapper and grouper are particularly vulnerable. Illegal operators use advanced techniques to evade detection, says Pele Gandy-Williams, Sierra Leone’s Financial Crimes Working Group Chairperson. They fish in restricted zones, falsify catch data, turn off transponders on their vessels, and frequently change vessel registration to avoid tracking.
The IUU Fishing Index shows that Chinese vessels are the worst offenders, but the government is hesitant to act as it has a close relationship with China. Feeling abandoned by the government, local fishing communities have started taking the law into their own hands. Fisherman Abdul Kamara, from the Funkia coastal community near the capital Freetown, told the ENACT organised crime project that locals had begun attacking foreign boats.
Residents’ anger intensified when news broke in 2021 that China intended building a fishing harbour and fish meal processing plant at the pristine Black Johnson Beach, a protected rainforest and beach.
In response to the anger over the plant, the Sierra Leone government has apparently halted China’s project.
The country has laws against illegal fishing. Fines for violations are hefty. But Sierra Leone has only one patrol boat, a vessel “often stuck in the harbour due to fuel shortages.”
“The country urgently needs a comprehensive fisheries strategy,” says ISS. The strategy would incorporate many elements, from monitoring to “promoting sustainable practices,” which last seems an obscure means of thwarting illegal fishing.
ISS also wants Sierra Leone “as a start” to “engage diplomatically with nations such as China that frequently breach its territorial waters.” But with China, “diplomacy” not backed up by force would prove pointless.
