Sierra Leone’s Fishermen Say Illegal Foreign Trawlers Destroying Livelihoods

On Sherbo Island off Sierra Leone’s coast, local fishermen haul in their nets the traditional way — with a dozen or more hands pulling together to bring the catch ashore. But residents say hauls have been shrinking for years, and they point to one consistent cause: large foreign fishing vessels encroaching on their waters.

Marie Pierre, who sorts sardines on the beach, says international trawlers are entering an officially protected coastal zone in growing numbers despite rules meant to keep them out. Fisherman Musa Gassimo goes further, alleging that trawlers deliberately sabotage local gear at night, cutting fishing lines that cost as much as $250 to replace.

A Regional Crisis

The problem extends well beyond Sierra Leone. West Africa is considered the world’s hotspot for illegal fishing, with roughly 40% of the globe’s unlicensed catch traced back to the region, according to a 2024 study. That report estimated the practice costs West African countries a combined $10 billion in lost revenue and threatens the food security of millions — and observers say little has changed since.

Thomas Turay, head of Sierra Leone’s Fishermen’s Union, says catches among his members have dropped by around 40%. Speaking near Freetown, he described trawlers anchoring just outside the seven-mile exclusion zone before moving in nearly every night. Fishermen he introduced shared accounts of cut nets and a collision with a larger vessel that damaged a local boat.

Chinese Vessels Named as the Main Culprits

Steve Trent, head of the Environmental Justice Foundation, says that while vessels from South Korea, Taiwan, and Europe have been implicated in the past, the ships now dominating the waters off West Africa are overwhelmingly Chinese. Local fishermen say their complaints to Sierra Leone’s Fisheries Ministry go unanswered, with Turay alleging that officials are being bribed to look the other way.

Government Pushes Back

Sheku Sei of Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Fisheries rejected the corruption claims, saying illegal fishing was once a major issue but has since been curbed through measures like mandatory transponders on foreign vessels and regular inspections. He maintained that penalties for entering the exclusion zone act as a real deterrent, though he could not cite a single case of that penalty being enforced in the past ten years, and he denied that vessels in Sierra Leone’s waters switch off their transponders to avoid detection — a tactic seen elsewhere in global shipping.

China’s Chamber of Commerce in Sierra Leone did not respond to requests for comment, but Beijing’s Foreign Ministry issued a broad denial last month after similar illegal-fishing accusations surfaced in Latin America, describing China as a responsible fishing nation that strictly regulates its distant-water fleet.

Calls for Greater Accountability

Trent dismissed China’s position as untenable, arguing that subsidies and weak oversight are effectively enabling the very overfishing Beijing denies responsibility for. He argues the fix lies in better vessel tracking and stronger international pressure, including from everyday consumers who ultimately buy the fish taken from West African waters — often without realizing where or how it was caught.