Chinese fishing deal makes waves ahead of Madagascar polls
ANAKAO: The sun glistens on waves lapping against wooden fishing boats as their sails ripple in the breeze coming off the Indian Ocean.
Nearby a young man with a diving mask bobs below the water’s surface armed with a stick to lure his catch into a net while also trying to snare fish on a nylon line.
In Anakao, a tradit ional fishing community in southwest Madagascar, the community known as Vezo – which means ‘ rowing strength’ – has fished for generations.
But the arrival last year of six fishing trawlers off the coast, and a subsequent deal between a local private body that promotes Madagascan businesses and Chinese investors, have stirred anger in recent months, at a time when the country is going to the polls in presidential elections.
“If this carries on, we’ll be eating sand,” warned Fulgence, a fisherman in Anakao.
He does not dare venture out when the six Chinese vessels are at sea, claiming that a number of his nets have been cut.
“The Chinese take everything and chuck the little dead fish back into the sea,” complained Marco Randrianjaka, echoing the grievances of many of his fellow seafarers.
“Without the small ones, they won’t be able to reproduce down the line.”
But China’s Mapro South, the company responsible for the six new vessels, denies the claims.
Their nets’ mesh is large enough to allow the smaller fish to escape, said Lifujun Li, a company manager in Toliara, a port town one hour away from Anakao by boat.
Against the backdrop of an already tense situation both locally and nationally due to the presidential poll, a new fisheries deal with Chinese investors has provoked an outcry on the island where malnutrition is widespread.
The deal, which was not publicised, is understood to go much further than the six Chinese- funded trawlers already in operation.
The US$ 2.7-billion (2.4-billioneuro) agreement includes, among other things, 330 modern, refrigerated vessels of up to 14 metres long (up to 46 feet) being delivered to Madagascan fishermen.
They will “replace the tradit ional wooden boats”, according to Madagascar’s Development and Business Promotion Agency ( AMDP), which negotiated the deal with China’s Taihe consortium.
The ships, supplied to local fishermen free of charge, will help them “increase their production capacity”, according to an AMDP official, who declined to be named.
A proportion of fish caught by those participating in the scheme will be sold locally.
The Chinese wi l l buy the ‘ surplus’ at a favourable but undisclosed price, said the AMDP official.
According to him, the deal will promote ‘ local development’ in Madagascar – one of the world’s poorest countries, which is also blighted by corruption.
The official blamed the outcry on the fishing community ‘ prejudging’ the project – something they deny.
The 330 new boats wi l l eventual ly produce 130,000 tonnes of f ish annual ly, according to the AMDP – roughly the equivalent of the country’s entire production in 2016.
“But we already face overfishing in some regions,” said Rijasoa Fanazava, a fisheries expert at the World Wildlife Fund in Madagascar.
Fanazava believes that tens of thousands of fishermen risk losing their livelihoods if stocks are diminished.
“How will they live?” he said.
A recent round table that brought together the AMDP and 30 affected organisations failed to allay their fears.