Shrimp Fishery Shut Down in Gabon

Photo by Youenn Kerdavid/Sea Shepherd

On September 17th, the Minister of Fisheries in Gabon, the Honorable Biendi Maganga-Moussavou, shut down the Gabonese shrimp fishery. The Minister joined Gabonese fisheries inspectors, national park eco-guards, Navy sailors and the Sea Shepherd crew on board the Sea Shepherd vessel Bob Barker for a three-day patrol to take action against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. 

The inspectors boarded a shrimp trawler, (a fishing boat which pulls a fishing net through the ocean behind it), Renovation 2, and discovered that it was using undersized mesh, which also traps juvenile fish.

*Bycatch is the non-target species caught by a fishing vessel, such as turtles, whales and dolphins.

The ratio of catch to bycatch on the Renovation 2 was staggering. With a ratio of 0.2% shrimp to 99.8% bycatch, the vast majority of what was caught was thrown back overboard. Most shrimp trawlers catch at least six pounds of bycatch for every one pound of shrimp.

Renovation 2 was arrested and was ordered to dock at Port Gentil, Gabon to be further investigated.

Another two shrimp trawlers, Amerger II and Amerger 7 have also been called to port as Minister Maganga-Moussavou has now suspended the entire shrimp fishery. 

“I was alarmed by what I saw on board Renovation 2. It is unfathomable that for every ton of shrimp caught, another ninety-nine ton of other marine wildlife was killed. Many of these fish caught were juveniles. To save the shrimp populations from collapse, I have decided to suspend the entire shrimp fishery to allow the marine ecosystem to recover.” - Minister Maganga-Moussavou

Separately, Sea Shepherd captured videos of two humpback whales struggling for over an hour to escape from a tuna fishing trawling net. The minister has expelled the European-owned fishing purse seiner vessel responsible for this incident as they refused multiple requests to release the endangered whales. 

“This is the kind of strong action that makes Sea Shepherd proud to support the conservation efforts of Gabon. Thanks to the leadership of Minister Maganga-Moussavou, three shrimp trawlers that were fishing unsustainably have been grounded and a purse seiner that tormented two whales has been booted out of the country, giving the oceans here a fighting chance”. - Captain Peter Hammarstedt, Sea Shepherd’s Director of Campaigns.