Bottom Trawling Testimonies
For organisations, businesses and groups
Keep up to date with the coalition’s latest news, events and campaigns
Bottom Trawling Testimonies
For organisations, businesses and groups
Keep up to date with the coalition’s latest news, events and campaigns
Keep up to date with the coalition’s latest news, events and campaigns. By signing up to the newsletter you agree to receive emails from the Transform Bottom Trawling Coalition on issues related to coalition. Your contact information will not be shared or publicised.
Testimony: Alpha
Location: Sierra Leone
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Yes | Yes | Blue Ventures |
Testimony: James
Location: Liberia
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Yes | Yes | Blue Ventures |
What is life like for an artisanal fisher in Liberia? Hear from Sylvester as he describes his life as a small-scale fisher, sharing the same waters as industrial trawlers.
Testimony: Sylvester Kanneh, Fisher
Location: Robertsport, Liberia
Small-scale fishers like Sylvester are organising into local co-management bodies called Collaborative Management Associations (CMA). CMAs work to secure legal and sustainable fisheries by acting as custodians of the resources they rely on, safeguarding the future of Liberia’s waters. Read about the work coalition member the Environmental Justice Foundation is developing with CMAs in Liberia here.
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Yes | Yes | Blue Ventures |
When small-scale fishers and bottom-trawlers collide, tensions and conflict arises.
Testimony: Sylvester Kanneh, Fisher
Location: Robertsport, Liberia
Small-scale fishers like Sylvester are organising into local co-management bodies called Collaborative Management Associations (CMA). CMAs work to secure legal and sustainable fisheries by acting as custodians of the resources they rely on, safeguarding the future of Liberia’s waters. Read about the work coalition member the Environmental Justice Foundation is developing with CMAs in Liberia here.
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Yes | Yes | Blue Ventures |
After two years hard labour onboard a Chinese trawling vessel, a Liberian fisher reflects on his time and experiences trawling in the country’s waters.
Testimony: Anonymous Fisher
Location: Robertsport, Liberia
Small-scale fishers in Liberia are organising into local co-management bodies called Collaborative Management Associations (CMA). CMAs work to secure legal and sustainable fisheries by acting as custodians of the resources they rely on, safeguarding the future of Liberia’s waters. Read about the work coalition member the Environmental Justice Foundation is developing with CMAs in Liberia here.
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Yes | Yes | Blue Ventures |
Sylvester and Cole reflect on the origins of the 6-mile nautical limit for trawler vessels and discuss what has changed since then.
Testimony: Cole, fisher
Location: Robertsport, Liberia
Liberia introduced a 6 nautical mile artisanal fishing zone in 2010. The regulation effectively reduced conflicts between the industrial and small-scale fishing sectors, but some incursions have continued. The Coalition for Fair Fishing Arrangements has documented recent cases in which deep water shrimp trawlers have fished inside the 6 nautical mile artisanal fishing zone in a series of news articles.
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Yes | Yes | Blue Ventures |
In Madagascar’s Tsimpaika bay, community-led habitat restoration coupled with appropriate fishing regulations – including a ban on shrimp trawling within 2nm of the coast – has revived an important coastal fishery.
Testimony: Nantenaina Ardo Nirisoa, Blue Ventures, Site Leader for Ambanja, Tsimipaika Bay
Location: Tsimpaika Bay, Madagascar
In July 2021, the Government of Madagascar imposed a prohibition on industrial shrimp trawlers fishing in waters within 2 nautical miles (3.7 kilometers) of the country’s coast. Small-scale fishers, who for years have clashed with the industrial vessels, welcomed the new rule and are calling for its implementation. Read more on Mongabay.
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Yes | Yes | Blue Ventures |
Zoila Bustamante Cardenas, President of the Latin American Union of Artisanal Fisheries and of the Confederation National Association of Artisanal Fishermen of Chile (CONAPACH), explains why CONAPACH’s 60,000+ members want to see an end to industrial bottom trawling.
Testimony: Zoila Bustamante Cardenas, President of the Latin American Union of Artisanal Fisheries and of the Confederation National Association of Artisanal Fishermen of Chile (CONAPACH)
Location: Chile
Read the Small-Scale Fishers’ Call to Action developed by CONAPACH in partnership with other small-scale fisher organisations here. Follow CONAPACH’s updates on Twitter here.
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
No | No | Blue Ventures |
A decade ago the last two trawlers fishing in Belize’s waters were removed from service. Hear from a spokesperson for the fisheries cooperative that owned those vessels about how the trawling ban affected their economic output, in the decade since.
Testimony: Roberto Butista, Assistant Manager of Credit and Finance, Belize Northern Fisherman’s Cooperative
Location: Belize City, Belize
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Yes | Yes | Blue Ventures |
A decade ago trawling was outlawed within Belize’s exclusive economic zone. Small-scale fishers from coastal communities share their reflections on what it was like when trawling was allowed, and share what has changed in the decade since
Testimony: Vonetta Dawson, Fisher; David Elijio, Fisher; Veronica Tun, Fisher; John Pasqee, Fisher; Michael Coote, Fisher;
Location: Belize City, Belize
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Y | Y | Blue Ventures |
Dawda Foday Saine from Gambia representing the Confederation of African Artisanal Fisheries Professional Organisations (CAOPA), explaining that bottom trawling is an irresponsible method of fishing which is a threat to responsible fishing, especially by small-scale, artisanal fishers who cannot compete with industrial scale bottom trawling.
Testimony: Dawda Foday Saine, from the National Association of Artisanal Fisheries Operators (NAAFO) and Secretary General of the African Confederation of Artisanal Fisheries Organizations (CAOPA)
Location: Gambia
Read the Small-Scale Fishers’ Call to Action developed by CAOPA in partnership with other SSF organisations here. Follow CAOPA’s updates on Twitter here.
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Y | Y | None |
Alhafiz Atsari from the Indonesian Traditional Fisherfolk Union explains how small-scale fishers have the knowledge to sustainably manage fisheries, whereas industrial scale fishing vessels do not fish sustainably. Bottom trawling has been banned in Indonesia for nearly 40 years, but enforcement can be a challenge. KNTI joined the TBT Coalition to raise awareness of the impacts of bottom trawling internationally.
Testimony: Alhafiz Atsari, Head of International Relations at the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen’s Union, Kesatuan Nelayan Tradisional Indonesia (KNTI)
Location: Indonesia
Follow KNTI’s work on Twitter here.
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Y | Y | None |
Lali Mohamed Lali is an ecotourism operator working from Malindi on Kenya’s central coast. He wants to see an end to coastal bottom trawling due to the damage it has inflicted on local fisheries and turtle populations, which impacts his livelihood.
Testimony: Lali Mohamed, Beach Tour Operator, Malindi
Location: Watamu, Kenya
Bahari Hai is a community-based organisation in Watamu that works with fishers to protect and manage their coastal fisheries and ecosystems. Read Bahari Hai’s report on issues impacting small-scale fisheries and turtle populations in the Ungwana Bay and Surrounds area to understand how bottom trawling impacts Lali and others in his community.
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Y | Y | Blue Ventures |
Mwakia Mgao Makazi has witnessed the decline in fisheries’ catches and turtle nesting acticity since bottom trawlers started fishing in her community’s fishing grounds and calls on fisheries managers to restrict the practice to revive coastal livelihoods.
Testimony: Mwakia Mgao Makazi
Location: Sabaki Bridge, Kenya
Bahari Hai is a community-based organisation in Watamu that works with fishers to protect and manage their coastal fisheries and ecosystems. Read Bahari Hai’s report on issues impacting small-scale fisheries and turtle populations in the Ungwana Bay and Surrounds area to understand how bottom trawling impacts Mwakia and others in her community.
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Y | Y | Blue Ventures |
Yunus Aboud is Chair of the Shela Beach Management Unit (BMU) in Malindi, Kenya. As chair of the BMU, he is respinsible for the sustainable management of his community’s local marine resources. He’s struggling to find a path forward to address the tensions between bottom trawlers, which are damaging coastal ecosystems and degrading local fisheries, and small-scale fishers, who rely on these same ecosystems and fisheries for their livelihoods and food security. He calls on the national government to take action to address bottom trawling so that small-scale fishers’ rights can be upheld. As a first step, he wants bottom trawlers to fish further offshore, away from artisanal fishing grounds.
Testimony: Yunus Aboud, Chair of the Shela Beach Management Unit (BMU)
Location: Malindi, Kenya
Bahari Hai is a community-based organisation in Watamu that works with fishers to protect and manage their coastal fisheries and ecosystems. Read Bahari Hai’s report on issues impacting small-scale fisheries and turtle populations in the Ungwana Bay and Surrounds area to understand how bottom trawling impacts Yunus and others in his community.
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Y | Y | Blue Ventures |
Bally is the National Coordinator of the Scottish Creel Fisherman’s Federation (SCFF). As the son of a trawlerman and a member of a rural coastal community in Scotland, Bally has witnessed the social, economic and ecological impacts of bottom trawling and dredging first-hand. Bally is calling on the Scottish government to introduce spatial management for bottom trawling and dredging to create trawl- and dredge-free areas in which fisheries and ecosystems can recover.
Testimony: Bally Philp, National Coordinator of the Scottish Creel Fisherman’s Federation
Location: Inner Sound, Scotland
Support the movement to revive Scotland’s inshore fisheries and ecosystems by signing Our Seas petition here and follow SCFF’s work on Twitter here.
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
Y | Y | Blue Ventures |
Nadifo Mohamud Jama describes how the arrival of foreign-owned bottom trawlers have damaged fishing grounds around Bander Beyla and undermined small-scale fisheries. She wants to see the government act to address illegal fishing by investing in enforcement activities.
Testimony: Nadifo Mohamud Jama, Bander Beyla Fishers’ Cooperative
Location: Bander Beyla, Somalia
Secure Fisheries supports the community in Bander Beyla to manage their local marine resources through local co-management institutions. Learn about the work communities are doing to co-manage Somalia’s fisheries here.
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
No | No | Secure Fisheries |
In the past, fishers in Ahmed Ismail Abdi’s community in Bander Beyla would catch large volumes of fish. But since the arrival of industrail bottom trawlers which ‘sweep like brooms’, catches have fallen dramatically. He wants the government to take action to protect Bander Beyla’s important coastal fisheries.
Testimony: Ahmed Ismail Abdi, Liason for the Bander Beyla Fishers’ Cooperative
Location: Bander Beyla, Somalia
Secure Fisheries supports the community in Bander Beyla to manage their local marine resources through local co-management institutions. Learn about the work communities are doing to co-manage Somalia’s fisheries here.
Can it be downloaded? | Can it be modified? | Copyright holder |
No | No | Secure Fisheries |