A
Chinese firm is sending six new vessels to African waters as part of a
continued push to shift its fishing focus away from overfished domestic
waters and toward richer fishing grounds abroad.
Wenzhou
Ocean Distant Water Fishing Co. launched six vessels simultaneously,
with three headed to Senegal and the others to Guinea Bissau, CEO Wu Xiu
Ling told state television. The vessels will target tuna, demersal
fish, cephalopods, and shrimp. The firm spent CNY 150 million (USD 21 million, EUR 19.5 million) building the vessels, according to Wu.
“Some
of the catch will be sold in local African markets and some will be
sent back to China for processing,” Liang Xiang Zan, head of the
Agriculture Ministry office in Wenzhou, the vessels’ home port. Liang
said the venture “will raise our local fishermen’s incomes” and he
called for additional investment in Chinese distant-water fisheries to
enable them to further expand in African waters.
In
2015, Liang’s office licensed Wenzhou Ocean Fisheries to build 10
vessels, giving the company four more vessels. China’s agriculture
ministry is tasked with overseeing China’s 2,600 vessels operating in
international waters. The bureau in 2018 suspended the license and
subsidies of Lian Run Pelagic Fishery Ltd after the company was exposed
for IUU fishing in Senegal’s waters.
China has pledged to cap its distant-water fleet
at 3,000 vessels. But the number of those vessels fishing abroad has
risen in recent years, due to a call by top government officials to
expand China’s distant-water effort to make up for chronic overfishing
in domestic waters. Currently, three-quarters of the vessels fishing off
the coast of West Africa are Chinese-owned or -controlled, according to
estimates by several nonprofit organizations.
