EJF 2

Illegal fishing vessels often use destructive fishing methods that destroy the seabed and result in high levels of bycatch. As a result fish stocks and wider marine biodiversity are being destroyed. ©EJF

EJF 1

Local fishing communities in West Africa depend on healthy oceans for their livelihoods and food security. Illegal fishing is having enormous impacts on these communities’ ability to meet basic food, health, education and income needs. ©EJF

In 2010/11, The Rufford Foundation provided a grant of £50,000 to Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF).

Save the Sea - An International Campaign to end Illegal Fishing

The funding from The Rufford Foundation enabled EJF to develop an international campaign to end unsustainable illegal ‘pirate’ fishing, with a focus on West Africa and the trade of ‘stolen’ fish into the EU, allowing us to:

  • Build a community surveillance project. Between January and March 2010, EJF documented four industrial fishing vessels flagged to Republic of Korea - 515 Amapola, Marcia 707, Medra and Seta 70 - operating illegally within Sierra Leone’s Inshore Exclusion Zone (IEZ). Such vessels fish unsustainably, wreck fishing nets and have caused injuries and even fatalities when they operate in the IEZ, which is reserved for local fishers. Information is rapidly passed to government and the European Commission.

  • Brief the European Commission, which undertook an unprecedented investigation in Las Palmas, Spain, an infamous ‘port of convenience’. As a result, Spanish authorities have seized 500 tonnes, a multi-million euro consignment, which is believed to includes octopus, squid, sole, shrimp and grouper, which was destined for European consumers.

  • Develop a campaign to end the use of ‘flags of non-compliance’, which enable illegal operators to avoid detection and penalty for wrongdoing. To this end, EJF also gathered over 10,000 signatures to a petition in support of a Global Record on Fishing Vessels which we presented to the UN FAO in January 2011.

  • Continue to build political awareness, securing support from key MEPs, media coverage, which included front page of The Guardian as a result of the All at Sea report, presentations to the Boston Seafood Summit and British Retail Consortium, and broader collaborations with NGOs, aquaria and chefs.