Fishing, in search of sustainable model
Traditional fishing boats on a beach in Senegal.
© EU Delegation Senegal
The fishing sector in the coastal states of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific is going through turbulent times and facing multiple challenges. These include whether to include the sector in the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), putting in place adequate structures to ensure sustainable fishing by both local and foreign fleets (particularly European fleets), and the viability of local fisheries – vital in coastal countries such as Senegal, Mauritania and several Caribbean countries.
As a backdrop to this there is the new proposal put forward by the European Commission in October 2007 to combat illegal fishing – an epidemic of such proportions that it has now become an international priority. Indeed, the challenges are so great that we decided in this dossier to focus on three pressing issues: the battle against illegal fishing, the exemplary partnership agreement on fishing between the EU and Mauritania, and local fishing activities.
