logoalt Hacker News

infinite_spin • today at 12:05 AM • 0 replies • view on HN

>> Foreign fishing has increased more than twenty-fold since 1981

>> Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by foreign fishing vessels in Somali waters has been problematic for decades .

>> The central government collapsed in 1991, and the ensuing increase in foreign fishing became a justification for piracy against fishing vessels.

(https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles...)

Other areas of the world have had similar responses to foreign commercial fishing:

>> In Southeast Asia, as competition for fish and other maritime resources intensified following the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-1998, increases in industrial fish catch volumes by foreign fleets led to sharp increases in South China Sea pirate attacks organized by residents of villages reliant on small-scale fisheries

(https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...)

>> Piracy is a growing concern in Sierra Leone, particularly in the northern maritime areas. Foreign trawlers have been attacked and robbed of both their catch and personal effects. Most of the pirates are reported to be from Guinea.

(https://wikileaks.jcvignoli.com/cable_09FREETOWN258)

However, there is evidence that piracy is more likely to exist in places where illegal fishing has declined. (With the disclaimer that "this research does not refute the earlier-held notion that foreign trawlers produce dissatisfied local fishers who turn towards piracy as a defense against foreign intruders."

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096262982...)