Is EU ‘Combating’ Somali Piracy Or Protecting Illegal Tuna Vessels?ff

Source: All Africa

Critics of the Operation Atalanta, the European Union’s military surveillance of the Indian Ocean officially established “to help deter, prevent and repress acts of piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia” suggest that its hidden mission is to protect European vessels. These vessels are accused by Somali seafarers and international organizations of another form of piracy: illegal fishing in Somali waters.

One example of the EU's protection of vessels fishing illegally in the waters of the Horn of Africa is the Spanish tuna fishing boat Alakrana. In Oct 2009, Somali pirates seized the boat, arguing that it was fishing illegally in Somali waters.

Almost two months later, the Somali pirates released the boat for a ransom of some four million dollars after several attempts by the Spanish army to free the Alakrana had failed.

The UN Special Representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, has also repeatedly raised the issue of illegal fishing in Somali waters. During a UN conference in July 2008, he told the press, “because there is no (effective) government (in Somalia), there is so much irregular fishing from European and Asian countries”.

Ould-Abdallah also denounced illegal fishing in the Somali waters before EU authorities. During a 2009 meeting with the high command of the EU’s Atalanta mission in Mombassa, Kenya, Ould-Abdallah said that “there is no doubt that there is illegal fishing by Asia and Europe”.

The waters off Somalia’s shore are still rich with several tuna varieties - all highly priced in international markets. A 2005 report from the marine resources assessment group (MRAG) estimated that the Somali economy loses some 90 million dollars a year due to illegal fishing. Estimates by the UNEP put the figure as high as 300 million dollars a year.

Such figures led the German retired admiral Lutz Feldt to urge the EU authorities to extend the Operation Atalanta mandate to the fight of illegal fishing. “For many, illegal fishing is a quick way to make money but for most people in Somalia it represents a heavy loss,” Feldt told the German news television program Fakt.

Feldt recalled that, “according to international law illegal fishing is a crime and it should be treated as such”.

Even European fishing companies admit that they are exploiting the Indian Ocean waters and involved in illegal fishing.

During a hearing on Operation Atalanta at the European Parliament in April 2009, representatives from French and Spanish ship-owner organizations told deputies that there were about 40 EU fishing boats operating in the Indian Ocean to catch three or four species of tuna fish.

So far, no illegal fishing in the Indian Ocean has been reported as part of Operation Atalanta, let alone European ships being caught doing it.

“The French and Spanish boats fishing in the Indian Ocean operate in international waters,” a spokesperson of the mission told IPS. “If they were fishing illegally in the area, it would be up to the national authorities of their countries of origin to see that they stop doing it.”