Greenpeace Teams Up with Mozambique Government to Protect Fisheries

The Indian Ocean is the second largest tuna fishing ground in the world. Vital to coastal states, such as Mozambique, this fishery is also attractive to foreign fleets, mainly from Asia and Europe. Each country's Economic Exclusion Zone, or EEZ, gives them jurisdiction over a specific part of this ocean and its marine resources. Lacking the technology and investment needed to fish far from shore, these countries sell licenses to foreign fleets, allowing them to fish their waters subject to certain regulations. João Noa Senete coordinates surveillance operations for the Mozambique Ministry of Fisheries. His job is to monitor and investigate fishing vessels to ensure they are in compliance with the regulations. But Mozambique's limited resources allow the country just two vessels to patrol 400,000 square kilometres of oceans, an area larger than Germany. To stop illegal fishing, a lot has to be done. Not only one government, but should be a lot of effort in the national level, regional level, international level. But today is no ordinary day. Noa and his fellow officers have teamed up with Greenpeace to increase their surveillance capacity. With the support of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, a larger area can be patrolled. We go on board. We check if the vessel has all documentation, like a fishing license and other regulations concerning the EEZ where they are fishing. The officers also inspect the hold, ensuring the catch actually meets the terms of the license and does not include protected species. During these two weeks we're working together, we were able to control our Economic Exclusive Zone in remote areas where we've never been before. This joint surveillance also enables the documentation of fishing practices in Mozambican waters and increases the knowledge of enforcement officials about the fishing fleets operating here. The longline is a fishing method, is a very long line, can be 100 kilometres or more and they can use more than 3000 hooks. Longliners in Mozambican waters target mainly albacore, bigeye, and yellowfin tuna. But longlining is a wasteful fishing technique. Untargeted species get caught on the line and are thrown back into the ocean, dead or dying. The target species themselves have been declining over the past 10 years. As tuna stocks dwindle, longliners are increasingly fishing for sharks to supply the lucrative shark fin markets in Asia. The fishing companies must change the way they fish in order to ensure that they do it in a sustainable way. For that we need full transparency of the chains of custody so everybody should know where their tuna is coming from and how it has been caught. Only by reducing overall fishing capacity and clamping down on pirate fishing vessels can Africa hope to sustainably manage its fish stocks in the future.