New satellite analysis by global analytics firm, Windward reveal that Japan has been using the island of Mauritius as a base for its rapidly expanding industrial fishing presence across the Indian Ocean and Africa. The extent of its industrial fishing operations in Africa’s waters, using Mauritius as a base, are revealed for the first time.
This comes after a large Japanese bulk carrier crashed into Mauritius, unleashing a massive oil spill, and four months on there has still not been been any credible explanation for how the Wakashio disaster occurred.
The rise in Japan’s operations across the Indian Ocean is particularly sensitive as Japan has been investing in maritime security systems as part of foreign aid agreements with Governments in the region (such as the $7 million maritime security deal with Seychelles in 2019). It is suspected that a failure in these Japanese-provided maritime security systems was one of the contributing factors that led to the Wakashio disaster, which saw a massive Japanese bulk carrier on collision course with Mauritius for four days, without any interception by the Indian Navy-run Mauritian Coastguard.
Under the Jugnauth Government there has been a massive industrialization of Mauritius-sponsored activities on the ocean. These have not gone without controversy, such as the Trident Deal for India to run Mauritius’ Coastguard and Japan to provide Maritime Security services. Both of these appeared to fail badly with the Wakashio grounding and oil spill.
With the planet facing a climate and biodiversity crisis, there needs to be a fundamental re-evaluation of how fisheries contracts are structured.
At present, tuna contracts are structured to maximize the amount of volume of fish that is caught.
By allowing the host nation to capture a higher value of the tuna, this should flip the incentives of tuna fisheries to lower the volume of fish caught and increase the value and resources that nations like Mauritius can use to better protect their waters.
A higher value should then be tied to lower volumes being caught, establishing a win-win where a country would still get to ensure the same amount of income, and nature can be restored to health levels.