How Foreign Subsidies are Undermining West Africa's Fisheries

 

[By Kebba Jeffang]

At sunrise most days, Lamin Sarr launches his wooden fishing canoe into the Atlantic from The Gambia’s Gunjur Beach, partaking in the same trade as his father and grandfather. But Sarr says the ocean feels emptier these days.

The fish that sustained Sarr’s village in the past are vanishing, replaced by imposing trawlers that he blames for catching what remains.

Each outing is a battle against the waves, but also against often-opaque agreements between governments and industrial fleets. Local fishers like Sarr say such agreements leave them with little hope.

West Africa’s fisheries are vital for both nutrition and employment. Relevant data is scarce, but a 2015 study estimated 6.7 million people in the region were dependent on the industry for food and work.

The trawlers that compete with West Africa’s local fishers are owned by Chinese and European firms. As detailed in a 2023 Amnesty International report, these industrial fleets have been accused of using small-mesh nets that catch juvenile fish, and employing destructive fishing methods, such as bottom trawling, leading to a depletion of stocks.

Sarr, who is president of the Fishers Association at Gunjur Beach, paints a grim picture of the prospects for him and his colleagues. He tells Dialogue Earth of an incident in which a trawler ran over a fishing boat, damaging it and destroying two valuable, 60-horsepower engines. Near the coastal village of Sanyang, a similar incident last year reportedly led to one death and two people missing. “Local fishers now flee at the sight of these trawlers, fearing for their safety,” says Sarr.

The Amnesty International report claimed these trawlers were overexploiting Gambian waters, significantly enough to shrink fish stocks and push up local prices. Sarr’s experience reflects this. The price of a basket of bonga fish – once an affordable staple – has leapt higher and higher in recent years, before almost tripling between 2021 and 2025, from 1,200 Gambian dalasi (USD 16.6) to 3,000.

“How can we sell that to poor people at our markets?” Sarr asks. “The destruction caused by these trawlers cannot be measured. People are losing their lives, the fishing grounds are being destroyed, and our boats and nets are being damaged.”

Opaque access agreements

Many countries in West Africa have signed access agreements that allow foreign vessels to fish in their waters – some are legally entitled to fish off Gunjur Beach.

Research published in 2015, led by University of British Columbia scientists, attempted to calculate the average annual fees paid by the EU and China to access West African waters for fishing during 2000-2010. The report’s authors faced several data hurdles – the “poor transparency” of China’s agreements and lack of data on illegal fishing, for example – but ultimately concluded that these access fees represented less than 10% of the value of what each fleet was catching.

The researchers tried to estimate the legal and illegal catch of these fleets and calculated that the EU fee is equivalent to around 8% of the value of all the fish they caught. The Chinese fee was around 4%.

Much of the detail of this fishing is hard to discern, with information on agreements, boat ownership and true catches often not made public and not discussed openly by officials making deals.

“The government’s silence on these deals suggests they are prioritising foreign interests over local livelihoods and environmental sustainability,” says Madi Jobarteh, a Gambia-based anti-corruption activist who founded the Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice. “Local fisherfolks face a clear and present danger to their livelihoods simply because of the unchecked presence of more advanced and bigger trawlers in our waters.”

He believes that monitoring of compliance with the agreement is weak, and without this, foreign fleets can operate with impunity.

The push for transparency

A growing movement across West Africa is seeking more transparency in fisheries to deal with problems in the sector.

The Gambia-European Union Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA) came into force in 2019. It gives vessels from Spain, Greece and France permission to fish in Gambian waters for tuna and black hake. The deal is due to expire in June, adding urgency to debates over its benefits and problems. The country is also already party to the Port State Measures Agreement, along with other West African nations including Senegal, Ghana and Mauritania. This legally binding, international agreement is designed to tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

In Senegal, the government published a list of authorised fishing vessels in May last year, which was well-received by transparency advocates. Officials have also been receptive to suggestions the country should update its 2015 Maritime Fisheries Code to align with the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI).

Introduced by the government of Mauritania in 2015, the FiTI upholds a standard for fisheries transparency that nations can sign up to. Senegal had joined the initiative but was delisted in August last year, with the FiTI saying its government had taken “encouraging” action but ultimately failed to take the mandatory first steps in implementing transparency standards. Some in Senegal’s civil society and fishing sectors are now pushing for Senegal to restart the membership process.

Another setback came in November, when the European Union allowed its fisheries deal with Senegal to expire, saying the country had not done enough to combat IUU fishing.

This means EU boats should leave Senegalese waters, and Senegal will no longer receive any financial contributions from the EU. In April, however, an investigation by the journalism group Follow the Money alleged at least a fifth of the boats fishing off Senegal under the national flag are owned by European companies.

Senegal’s neighbour to the north is faring comparatively better: “Mauritania has joined the FiTI and published nearly five reports, showing its commitment to transparency,” says Bassirou Diarra, an ocean campaigner for the Environmental Justice Foundation.

Ghana committed to joining the FiTI in July last year but has yet to submit its application. Its fisheries sector still has problems with illegal fishing and labour abuse, according to Clement Kadogbe, who works on human rights in business for Ghana’s Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice: “Some of these challenges still rear their ugly heads, because of the lack of political will of leaders of the various countries.”

Subsidising environmental damage

Fishing subsidies, particularly those originating from China or the European Union, are often blamed for fuelling overfishing.

These subsidies, worth billions of dollars globally, include discounts for fuel and vessel purchases, loans and other support. Some subsidies are targeted at encouraging sustainable practices, but others drive fishers to catch more than the ocean can replenish.

Max Schmid, the Environmental Justice Foundation’s chief operating officer, says these subsidies can make ongoing fishing artificially profitable for foreign boats off West Africa: “In turn, this facilitates overfishing and illegal fishing. As operators chase fewer fish, some turn to human trafficking, forced, bonded and slave labour to keep costs down.”

Dialogue Earth consulted Rashid Sumaila, a professor of fisheries and ocean economics at the University of British Colombia, Canada. He also says subsidies fuel overcapacity, depleting fish stocks vital to local economies.

“By incentivising large-scale exploitation, [subsidies] displace artisanal fishers, reducing catches and driving unemployment among youth dependent on fisheries for livelihoods,” he said. “Moreover, the lack of transparency and regulation linked to these subsidies fosters IUU fishing, undermining governance and food security in the region.”

A global solution to West Africa’s problem?

Fisheries subsidies are not just a West African problem – there is a global push to limit the environmental damage they can cause.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted an Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies in June 2022, which aims to prohibit subsidies that lead to overfishing. For the agreement to enter into force, two-thirds of WTO members must now deposit an “instrument of acceptance” with the organisation. As of April 2025,  97 of the 166 members had done so. Those that have include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and The Gambia.

WTO members are attempting to negotiate for yet stronger measures to further reign in the subsidies that cause overfishing, but progress has been difficult.

Nevertheless, campaigners hope this global-level change can help The Gambia and its neighbours.

“Governments spend about USD 22 billion annually on harmful subsidies that drive overfishing,” says Megan Jungwiwattanaporn, an environmental policy officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts in the US. “The time is now for WTO Members to finalise the agreement and begin protecting West African fisheries.”

For fishers in places like Gunjur, the hope is that international pressure and local advocacy will lead to stricter regulations – and that these rules will be followed.

“We need real enforcement, not just promises,” Sarr says. Without this kind of action, the livelihoods of millions of West Africans will remain at risk.

Kebba Jeffang is West Africa editor for Dialogue Earth and is based in The Gambia. He joined the organisation in 2022 after over a decade writing for local and international journalism outlets including Foroyaa and Malagen in The Gambia, and Chinese state news agency Xinhua. His main areas of interest include investigating and reporting on climate change, and environment and ocean issues such as illegal fishing and overfishing. 

This article appears courtesy of Dialogue Earth and may be found in its original form here.