A report released this month by the nonprofit group Oceans Beyond Pirates examines recent changes in the nature of piracy off the coasts of Africa. For most of the last decade, piracy in the West Indian Ocean near Somalia has made it one of the world’s most dangerous regions for seafarers, and oil tankers in particular.
However, piracy rates in the West Indian Ocean have dropped significantly, thanks to a massive influx of resources from the global community. The past six years have seen a 90 percent drop in the number of hostages taken by Somali pirates, attributed to a reduction in the number of “safe havens” for pirates, as well as more aggressive sea patrols and additional support on the ground.
Yet, the same period has also seen a significant uptick in piracy off the coast of West Africa, in the Gulf of Guinea, near oil-rich Nigeria. Furthermore, cheap oil prices have compelled pirates to favor new tactics—focusing on taking hostages instead of on hijacking oil tankers. Capturing tankers is simply too great an investment of time and resources for these pirates, following two years of plummeting oil prices.
Political tensions in Nigeria, related to the 2015 elections, exacerbated the kind of instability in which piracy thrives. The economic impact of these activities on the Nigerian economy has become significant.
To gain an understanding of what actions are needed to solve this problem, the world must understand what led to the outbreak in Somalian piracy. All too rarely discussed in the global conversation about modern piracy are the economic and political realities that create conditions leading people to become pirates.
Somalia’s last effective government collapsed in 1991, leading to more than two decades of weak rule of law and economic stagnation.
Long before Somali pirates became infamous around the world, foreign fishing vessels began taking advantage of the lack of law enforcement in Somalia. Better equipped than local fishermen, these illegal fishing operations steal an estimated $300 million of seafood from the Somali coast annually. A U.N. report from 2006 called the situation a “free for all.”
Since 1991, with no effective coast guard, Somalis have had little choice but to defend their own fishing operations—leading to the formation of a number of groups who later shifted their focus to piracy.
These early groups who formed in the 1990s to protect the Somali coast began to take hostages, in part because it was usually a quick payoff since foreign groups would quickly agree to pay in order to keep their illegal activities quiet.
Before long, piracy and kidnapping became one of the most profitable activities available on a coast ravaged by overfishing and pollution. By 2008, piracy was a serious enough problem that intervention by NATO, the EU, and others became necessary to protect shipping.
Unfortunately, fishermen have reported a surge in illegal fishing since these international coalitions stamped out piracy. Flotillas have come from countries such as Yemen, South Korea, and Iran to plunder the rich waters off the coast.
These illegal vessels have been known to harass local fishermen, ramming or shooting at them, or sabotaging their fishing gear.
Some Somali pirates are now serving as armed escorts for foreign vessels, meaning local fishermen are now victimized by the groups initially formed to protect their own resources. This has led locals to wonder why forces like NATO are able to chase out the pirates but not the illegal fishing vessels.
A report by the group Secure Fisheries states that illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing vessels are now catching three times as much fish as Somali fishermen. The foreign vessels also target the highest-priced fish, leaving Somali fishermen to compete over the cheapest seafood. This root problem threatens to allow history to repeat itself, all over the world.
A groundbreaking international accord went into effect on June 5, in an effort to finally eliminate illegal fishing. It is legally binding for 29 countries that have signed on. Though it just went into effect, it was initiated in 2009.
It is called the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (PSMA), and it was adopted by the U.N. Fisheries and Agriculture Organization (FAO). To make it legally binding, at least 25 countries had to agree to adhere to it. After years of diplomatic effort, that threshold has been met and surpassed.
Similar international exploitation plagues other areas of the East African coast. Mozambique has seen its coast plundered by illegal fishing, by Chinese vessels in particular, and has taken action to combat such encroachment by boosting its own coast guard.
According to a 2014 report, only one boat out of the 130 fishing in its waters was registered in Mozambique. Illegal fishing is said to steal $35 million a year from the economy of Mozambique and puts the country’s population, which gets 50 percent of its protein from fish, at risk of widespread hunger.
The international community, as well as governments in East and West Africa, needs to be aware of the link between illegal overfishing and piracy.
Damage to the environment and exploitation by foreign fishing vessels will create a need for locals to fill the power vacuum to protect their own coasts. In turn, these local militias become prone to piracy and kidnapping to survive in an economy plagued, in part, by overfishing.
When groups such as NATO get aggressive about stopping pirates but do little to nothing about illegal fishing, it only reinforces the notion among locals that they must protect their own coasts against foreign exploitation.
Uju Okoye is a Toronto-based researcher with a focus on African politics.
