Somalia: Call on UN & Governments to Prevent Sea Theft as Pre-Requisite for Ending Piracy

After the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami recovery and again in 2007, a number of fishermen and women living on the northeast coast of Somalia described to me what had become one of their greatest worries, one that has been obscured by the more sexy press about piracy: sea theft.

Foreign trawlers have been forging into Somalia's unprotected coastal waters, literally stealing fishing nets, lobster pots, and dynamiting reefs to clean up crab and lobster stock since the early 1990's. Sea theft has contributed to poverty and hunger along Somalia's coastline.

After harsher than normal droughts kill off livestock many herders flood to the fisheries for work knowing that farming is virtually impossible in the soils of this region. On the coast they find that equipment has been plundered and fish stocks are low...

Stopping foreign trawlers from plundering Somali resources was not only a large motivation for the first generation of pirates, but is also a large reason many Somalis consent to having these armed gangs patrol the sea. Sadly, the criminal elements have stolen the headlines and compelled Western countries to devote time and money to stopping piracy in real time when they could help to rebuild the mandate for rule of law on the sea by also preventing sea theft committed by foreign opportunists. Ironically, the pirates have done more to protect the artisanal fisheries then either the Somali government or the international maritime law enforcement.

"We don't have farms," a woman named Ibado said. She ran the Tanat grocery in the coastal village of Bender Beyla. "We don't sell any fruits and vegetables. We get our vegetables from the sea."

“In Bender Beyla we depend on fishing and livestock,” said Maxamud, one of the village elders. “The majority of our income comes from this, but both have been affected by the drought and the tsunami. All other things, the shops, tea, tailoring, are all things that depend on the fishing and pastoralism. Who’s going to go to these shops if there’s no money? Now the problem is that we have no fishing gear and the fishing season is coming, And our local fishermen have been endangered by the foreign fishermen who come in with large boats and destroy our nets and equipment.”

“This year the lobster population is falling,” Khalif, one of the heads of the fishing network in the ocean-side village of Kulule, illustrated, “so we’re catching less and less each year. We can’t tell you how much is at sea since we can’t see it. But we know foreigners are taking a lot of it. It’s not only Somalis catching here but also foreigners with sophisticated fishing gear.” When asked what the community will do if the lobster stock is depleted, Khalif and others darken. “Only God knows what we’ll do then.”

I've researched these issues again this month in light of the continued piracy and found that the issues of piracy, maritime law enforcement, and local hunger remain inextricably connected. To sustainably prevent piracy, the UN and governments must also prevent foreign companies from stealing from fisheries along Somalia's coast.

[Photo: A trawler on the high seas, 4blueeyes]