West Africa's coastal bottom trawl fishery: Initial examination of a trade in fishing services

Virdin, John; Kobayashi, Mimako; Akester, Stephen; Vegh, Tibor; Cunningham, Stephen

doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2018.11.042

Cited by 11 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The fisheries sector is a source of direct and indirect employment to an estimated nine million people in West Africa alone (Okafor-Yarwood, 2019). For countries across the region, fish is vital to their revenue generation as it is a source of foreign direct investment (Okafor-Yarwood, 2019;Belhabib, Sumaila, and Le Billon, 2019;Virdin et al, 2019;Okafor-Yarwood and Belhabib, 2020) hence highlighting the centrality of a secure marine environment to human security and the interconnectedness of various human security components (Gjørv, 2017;Poppy et al, 2014).…”

Section: Fish and Human Securitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cyclical Nature of Maritime Security Threats: Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing as a Threat to Human and National Security in the Gulf of Guinea

Okafor‐Yarwood

2020

African Security

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Analyses of [maritime] security issues have long focused on threats to the nation-state, thereby promulgating traditional state-centric security policies and practices. The preceding claim is valid for maritime security responses on the African continent, where piracy/armed robbery at sea has been met with robust regional and international interventions, and resulted in two UN resolutions and regional policies. Focusing primarily on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, this paper seeks to highlight the centrality of human security issues to national security by providing evidence of the cyclical relationship between the two; anything that undermines human security, explicitly threatens national security. Utilising evidence from Nigeria, the paper critiques the tendency to ignore the individual as the referent object of security.

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Section: Fish and Human Securitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cyclical Nature of Maritime Security Threats: Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing as a Threat to Human and National Security in the Gulf of Guinea

Okafor‐Yarwood

2020

African Security

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“…A trade lens provides a useful analytical framework (World Bank, 2014). Virdin et al (2019) conducted an 'initial examination' of the coastal bottom trawl fishery in four West African states (Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone) using this trade lens, based upon data on licensing arrangements. The study suggested that the economic benefits from the trade in fishing services between the four coastal West African states and the foreign companies operating coastal bottom trawl fleets are sub-optimal for the resource holders.…”

Section: Using a Trade Lens To Assess Economic Outcomes From Distant ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The net economic benefits from the trade were approximated by estimating the total resource rent generated from the harvesting operations of the fleets, equivalent to the surplus value resulting from the use of an asset calculated after all costs and normal returns have been taken into account (Clark & Munro, 1975;Hilborn, 2007 ). An important caveat is that RR is estimated based on the profitability of the harvesting segment of the fishery, and not the entire seafood value chain (Virdin et al, 2019). Given these specifications, equation (1) above for RR can be written in expanded form as:…”

Section: Measuring the Net Economic Benefits Of The Trade: Calculatio...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…denotes RR retained by the foreign fishing companies in the form of residual profits after license fees are paid to the coastal state government (Virdin et al, 2019). For this analysis, we used lists of all fishing licenses issued to trawl vessels by each coastal state government, providing the total fees received from each vessel.…”

Section: Estimating Distribution Of the Resource Rentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A snapshot of the economic benefits from foreign bottom trawling in coastal West Africa: A mutually‐beneficial trade in services, no winners or extractivism?

Virdin

Vegh

Akester³

et al. 2022

Fish and Fisheries

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Large‐scale fishing effort in the waters of tropical and lower income countries is predominantly driven by ‘distant water fishing fleets’ often owned by companies based in a small number of countries and has been associated with a range of negative environmental and social outcomes. West Africa is an example where such fleets are a dominant feature. In the waters of Guinea‐Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana, 75% of all licensed bottom trawl vessels in 2017 either registered (‘flagged’) or largely owned in China. In this context, we examined the size and distribution of the economic outcomes from operation of these vessels in above five countries to better understand the impacts of these coastal states’ decision for allocating access to the distant water bottom trawl fleet. Based on analysis of heterogeneous sources of data, we estimate that in 2017 the China‐flagged or owned coastal bottom trawl fleets generated little to no net economic benefits in terms of resource rent for either the companies or the coastal states in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana. Significantly higher economic benefits were generated from the offshore fishery in Guinea‐Bissau (US$31 million) and Guinea (US$25–38 million), largely captured by the companies owning the China‐flagged fleet. The size and distribution of the resource rent suggest that based solely of economic measures, the five coastal states may want to better assess the terms of these access arrangements for the foreign‐flagged or owned bottom trawl fleets. The fishing companies may need to reassess the sustainability of their operations, particularly in the southern states for long‐term economic benefits.

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“…The vessels are owned by foreigners mainly from Europe (e.g., Spain, Greece, Russia.) and China, who operate through joint ventures with Liberian registered fishing agencies [12][13][14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Bio-Economic Analysis of the Liberian Coastal Fisheries

et al. 2020

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Many coastal fisheries are subject to harvesting externalities due to inadequate regulations compounded by limited enforcement. Coastal fisheries in Liberia consist of a fleet of dugout canoes (Kru) primarily targeting demersal finfish, larger open wooden boats propelled with outboard engines targeting small inshore pelagics (Fanti), and a small number of industrial trawlers employing midwater and bottom trawls targeting finfish and shrimp. This paper develops a bio-economic model for the coastal fisheries in Liberia and employs the model to identify economic optimal fishing effort and harvesting trajectories for the different coastal fleets. The results show under harvesting and disinvestments in the coastal fisheries in Liberia. In 2010 the Government of Liberia declared a six nautical mile inshore exclusion zone accessible only to small-scale fisheries (SSF), which was accompanied by increased enforcement. The coastal fleets in 2016 were profitable but the distribution of profits was tilted to the small-scale fleets. The government needs to evaluate what policy options are available to fully utilize the fisheries potential for different species complexes while at the same time reduce the risk of conflict and overharvesting. There appears to be a need for investment in new technologies, which can only take place if fishing in Liberia will remain profitable.

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West Africa's coastal bottom trawl fishery: Initial examination of a trade in fishing services

Cited by 11 publications

References 18 publications

The Cyclical Nature of Maritime Security Threats: Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing as a Threat to Human and National Security in the Gulf of Guinea

The Cyclical Nature of Maritime Security Threats: Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing as a Threat to Human and National Security in the Gulf of Guinea

A snapshot of the economic benefits from foreign bottom trawling in coastal West Africa: A mutually‐beneficial trade in services, no winners or extractivism?

A Bio-Economic Analysis of the Liberian Coastal Fisheries

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