Fishing statistics in Madagascar are poorly recorded but in 2008, an estimated 130, 000 tons of fish were caught in Madagascar. But illegal fishing from foreign trawlers is threatening the livelihood of an estimated 100,000 people.

These foreign pirate ships operate at night and are rarely caught, switching off their radio identification signals to evade police patrols.

Madagascar, one of the world’s poorest countries with an income capita of just US$419, has just 11 police speed boats to patrol its 4828 kilometre coast.

Under the cover of darkness, gangs from massive Chinese, Thai and South-Korean vessels, bring down illegal fishing nets fitted with deep hooks to trap high-value fish such as prawns, mackerel, tuna, shark and trout, which are then sold for a significant profit in the markets of Beijing, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur.

Illegal fishing from foreign trawlers (Massive Chinese, Thai and South-Korean vessels) is threatening the livelihood of an estimated 100,000 people in 1250 coastal fishing communities across the country, but most severely in coastal cities like Toamasina and Nosy Be.

Local fishermen estimate that 2 foreign vessels can catch, process and freeze the same amount of fish that 30 open dhow boats can produce in one year. They are operating from gigantic mother ships fitted with instant freezing technology.

According to the Madagascar Fisheries and Wildlife Commission, a government body that regulates fishing permits, by 2001 the shark fish population around Toamasina was decreasing by a rate of 6% per year. Fast forward to the period between 2005 and 2014, and that rate had jumped to 23%.