Sustainable Exploitation of Maritime Stocks in the West African Marine Eco-Region within the Context of ACP-EU Relation

Abstract

This paper will mainly focus on the Western Africa Marine Eco-Region, (WAMER) composed of Mauritania, Senegal, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea. Since all the countries in this eco-region, except The Gambia, have fisheries agreements with the European Union (EU), they provide an interesting example of ACP-EU relations in the fishery sector. In the WAMER eco-region, the fishery sector is a source of foreign currency, jobs and food for more than 22 million people. A look at the current fishery stock shows alarming trends: decrease in average size of fish caught, reduction in Catch per Unit of Effort (CPUE) for various species, especially the coastal demersals,1 etc. Depletion of marine stocks would have disastrous economic and social effects.