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WORLD✒ EDITORIALABSURDITY:
Report links fishmeal production to decline in key species for Guinea-Bissau communities
Filed 2h ago · Via Mongabay · The Buffoon Desk
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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0
Photo: RTVMalacanang · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
An OCCRP investigation links declining sardinella populations off Guinea-Bissau to industrial fishmeal production by Chinese-owned factory ships supplied by a Turkish fishing fleet, with export data suggesting at least 350,000 tons of raw fish were converted to fishmeal against a 2013 combined stock estimate of just 270,109 tons. A government fisheries assessment found the stocks decimated, prompting Guinea-Bissau to ban fishmeal production.
Local fisherman Tejan Joof told the outlet he now needs four or five days at sea to catch what once took one or two, and often falls short even then. A government fisheries director said the ban aims to protect fish meant for human consumption, 'especially for the disadvantaged population.'
The full dispatch is available from the source below.
✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK
Turning a protein source that feeds hungry people into pellets for somebody else's cattle overseas is the kind of trade that only makes sense on a balance sheet nobody local ever sees. The math in this report is about as blunt as arithmetic gets: take out more fish than the whole stock, and there's no stock left to argue about. A ban is a start, but it doesn't put the fish back in the water any faster than it left.
