Due to persistent illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing by China and other foreign fleets, stocks of Somalia’s yellowfin tuna are facing a collapse that could devastate the economy and affect food security. IUU fishing costs Somalia $300 million annually and threatens the livelihoods of up to 90,000 artisanal fishermen.
China’s Liao Dong Yu distant-water fishing fleet, particularly, has operated illegally in Somali waters since at least 2019 and is illegally overfishing yellowfin tuna, one of the world’s most commercially valuable species. At least four of the fleet’s vessels have pillaged Somali waters, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC).
The Liao Dong Yu fleet is owned by the Liaoning Daping Fishery Group. A source in Somalia’s Puntland Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources told the GI-TOC that fishing licenses for the fleet were not issued through the ministry, as is proper practice, but through central authorities in Garowe, Puntland’s capital. This makes it difficult to assess the full extent of the Liao Dong Yu fleet’s activities.
Beijing “supplies cheap tuna to international markets, making it highly attractive to global buyers,” analyst Helena Constela wrote for The Seaspiracy Observer. “This contributes to the depletion of tuna populations, as its fleets often engage in illegal fishing, especially in regions like Somalia, where enforcement is limited.”
The issuing of licenses from semi-autonomous regions such as Puntland or Somaliland further complicates fishing license enforcement. For example, the Puntland Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources can issue fishing licenses for more than a year, which is longer than the Somali federal government standard of three-months duration.
Robert McKee, a global maritime security expert who previously worked with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, told Omolo and Okumu that enforcing Somalia’s fisheries laws requires improved regional monitoring, control and surveillance centers, and dedicated task forces.
“Seizing illegal vessels, arresting offenders and confiscating illicit fishing equipment are essential to safeguard Somalia’s overexploited yellowfin tuna,” Omolo and Okumu wrote for the Enhancing Africa’s Capacity to Counter Transnational Crime (ENACT) project. ENACT is primarily led by the ISS, GI-TOC and Interpol.
China is the world’s third-largest exporter of tuna products and its largest consumer. Beijing also commands the world’s largest distant-water fishing fleet and is by far the world’s worst IUU fishing offender, according to the IUU Fishing Risk Index. Of the top 10 companies engaged in illegal fishing globally, eight are from China.
Satellite imagery analysis by the nongovernment organization International Justice Mission and testimony from local fishermen has confirmed that the Liao Dong Yu fleet routinely operates too close to shore. Under Somali law, foreign fishing vessels are not permitted to fish within 24 nautical miles (more than 44 kilometers) from land. This area is designated for local fishermen.
The fleet’s vessels often switch off their automatic identification system (AIS), transponders, a practice known as “going dark.” The Chinese fleet also practices blast fishing, which is fishing with explosives, and bottom trawling, which involves dragging a massive net along the ocean floor, indiscriminately scooping up all manner of marine life.
“Use of trawl fishing is destructive in nature, especially the bottom trawling that causes damage to coral reefs and other marine environs,” Omar Abdulle Hayle, a fisheries expert in Mogadishu, told Kenya’s Nation newspaper.
Liao Dong Yu vessels also are accused of labor and human rights abuses. In one case, 13 crew members on its vessels said their passports were withheld and they were forced to work months after their contracts expired.
One crew member told the GI-TOC that they also were deprived of food and sleep and were beaten by the captain. Four crew members tried to escape by jumping overboard and swimming to the Somali shore. Three of them were brought back on board. The fourth is believed to have drowned.
In late November 2024, a group of Somali fishermen, tired of watching a Lia Dong Yu trawler fishing 2 nautical miles (3.7 kilometers) from shore, attacked the boat, disarmed its guards and forced the captain to sail up and down the coast, eluding authorities for seven weeks.
The trawler was released and its entire crew set free on January 13. Local sources told Al Jazeera that the hijackers departed and went their separate ways.
