Small-scale fishers in West Africa hit hard by COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a serious toll on artisanal fishers and the communities that depend on them for income and food. In West Africa, COVID-19 comes at a challenging time, as highly vulnerable communities have already been facing hunger or conflict.

Across the world, the entire fresh seafood sector has collapsed, as restaurants, hotels, and other food-related businesses have closed. The seriousness of the situation led the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to release a policy brief on the topic in early April, which noted:

“Although COVID-19 does not affect fish, the fish sector is still subject to indirect impacts of the pandemic through changing consumer demands, market access or logistical problems related to transportation and border restrictions. This will in turn have a damaging effect on fishers and fish farmers’ livelihoods, as well as on food security and nutrition for populations that rely heavily on fish for animal protein and essential micronutrients”.

Global fishing activity by industrial vessels dropped nearly 10 per cent in the month and a half after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March, and that figure does not account for the impacts on small-scale fisheries. Of the roughly 120 million people employed in the fisheries industry globally, more than 90 per cent work in small-scale fisheries and 97 per cent live in developing countries.

In the small-scale fishing sector, negative impacts of the pandemic so far have included shutdowns of entire fisheries, reduced demand, collapse of seafood prices, and health risks for workers and their communities. In some areas, social distancing measures have prevented small-scale fishermen from going out to sea because their boats are too small to enable distancing between workers.

While Senegal has been found to be the most resilient country to COVID-19 in Africa and the third most resilient in world, social distancing measures taken to mitigate the spread of the pandemic in the country have disrupted the functioning of artisanal fisheries systems on which the country’s economy strongly depends. In Mauritania, similar measures imposed by authorities to control the spread of the virus have led to strikes. In Sierra Leone, restrictions caused a riot among fishermen.

Women stand to be particularly hurt by COVID-related disruptions to West Africa’s fishing industry. The pandemic is expected to deepen gender inequalities across the whole seafood sector. Many women in West Africa work as fish processors, and their jobs are threatened as fish supply chains are disrupted, as seen in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Ghana, and Senegal, among other countries.

Some West African governments – in Ghana and Senegal, for instance – have compounded the problems posed by COVID-19 by considering granting licenses to foreign-owned fishing vessels from China and elsewhere, in some cases for species that are already considered overexploited. Associations representing small-scale fisheries have protested.

The COVID-19 outbreak could also open the door to more illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. Fishery observers – performing an occupation that even in normal times carries the risk of disappearance or death – are having their activities curtailed by the virus.

Organizations that support small-scale fishers are trying to assist affected communities. In April, the African Confederation of Professional Organizations of Artisanal Fisheries called on countries’ fisheries ministers to help artisanal fishers and others in the sector continue to work. The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers has launched an online platform focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on fisheries and fishing communities.

National governments need to prioritize the livelihoods of small-scale fishery workers even as they ensure that marine ecosystems are being exploited at ecologically sustainable levels. This is critical for the region’s economies and food security.