Africa News Broadcast 
China is the world’s biggest fish producer and has the largest distant-water fleet (CDWF) – officially 2,701 vessels but likely thousands more – many of which engage in high instances of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, according to an NGO, the Environmental Justice Foundation (EFJ).
While the CDWF also operates in waters off Asia and elsewhere, its activities in Africa account for 78.5% of its approved offshore fishery projects, EJF found when analysing data from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. The group’s report this week found that some 90% of Ghana’s industrial trawl fleet is actually owned by Chinese corporations using local “front” companies to register as Ghanaian and get around the law. CDWF bottom-trawlers catch an estimated 2.35 million tons of fish a year in West Africa, accounting for 50% of China’s total distant water catch and worth some U.S.$5 billion.
China’s gain is often to the detriment of countries like Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, EJF says, with the highest number of illegal fishing incidents reported in the West African region between 2015 and 2019, writes Kate Bartlett for Voice of America.
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