Government officials and fisheries authorities from East African countries have publicly sharpened their stance against illegal fishing in the South West Indian Ocean, with delegates at a regional summit in Zanzibar warning that foreign industrial fleets are exploiting enforcement gaps and threatening coastal economies.
The three-day Blue Voices Regional Summit, hosted in Zanzibar and convened under the Jahazi Project, brought together ministers, legal authorities, and maritime agencies from Tanzania and Kenya to coordinate action against illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUUF). Participants framed the issue not only as an environmental concern but as a matter of sovereignty, economic security, and rule of law.
“Illegal fishing is not just an environmental issue; it is about food security, livelihoods, sovereignty, and development,” said Hon. Mboja Ramadhani Mshenga, Deputy Minister in Zanzibar’s Ministry of Blue Economy and Fisheries.
During closed and plenary discussions, several delegates linked IUUF risks in deep offshore waters to distant-water commercial fleets, with particular concern raised about operators associated with Southern and Eastern Asian fishing interests, including vessels tied to Chinese companies, according to participants. Speakers emphasized that the concern was about compliance, transparency, and enforcement, not nationality, but said industrial capacity imbalances and opaque ownership structures make accountability difficult.
Those foreign fleets, delegates argued, operate at scales far beyond local monitoring capacity, while fragmented legal systems across coastal states create opportunities to shift operations between jurisdictions.
“We must ensure that those who exploit our waters find no haven anywhere in our region,” Hon. Mshenga said.
The message from Zanzibar is that partnership and lawful trade remain welcome, but exploitation of shared marine resources will face growing regional scrutiny. Officials repeatedly described IUUF as “economic theft” from coastal communities. Fishery-dependent regions in Tanzania and Kenya rely heavily on marine resources for income and food supply, making stock depletion a direct economic and social risk.
“Illegal actors succeed when countries act alone and fail when regions act together,” said Dr. Paul Orina, the Director General for the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), emphasizing the need for intensified regional collaboration against IUUF.
Legal experts warned that inconsistent penalties across countries create incentives for operators to move activity to the least restrictive jurisdiction.
“When penalties are low in one jurisdiction, crime migrates there,” said Leonard Bett Cheruiyoti, Deputy Chief State Counsel in Kenya’s Office of the Attorney General.
Delegates agreed that national enforcement alone cannot address the scale of offshore fishing activity. The summit concluded with commitments to strengthen legal coordination, align prosecution frameworks, and improve information sharing between maritime and fisheries authorities.
“Securing our seas together is not a slogan; it is an economic necessity,” said Captain Hamad Bakari Hamad, Principal Secretary in Zanzibar’s Ministry of Blue Economy and Fisheries.
The summit ended with the signing of a regional cooperation framework by some participating countries, signalling what participants described as a shift from fragmented national responses toward coordinated South West Indian Ocean governance.
