IN ALGERIA: AN ACTIVITY EVOLVING UNDER THE RADAR SCREEN
Since 2002 Algeria’s bluefin tuna quota was set to 1,500 tons per year. This is the maximum Algeria can claim. Most of that quantity (60%) is presumably captured by the domestic fleet and 40% by licensed foreign trawlers who pay a fee of DZD 500,000 per ship and DZD 150,000 per ton of tuna captured. Domestic trawlers are exempted from paying these fees. However, Algerian observers, the general population and the media have been raising questions about the destination of that annual catch. They argue that consumers domestically rarely see fresh tuna in the markets. They also say that there are no processing or canning plants in the country to absorb that volume. Independent investigators and newspaper reporters concluded that no single pound of fresh tuna earmarked to Algeria is sold domestically. Of the 1,500 tons provided to Algeria, up to 600 tons are sold to Japanese or Korean buyers. That represents MAD 120 million captured by the Algerian treasury. The remaining volume of 1,000 tons is simply untraceable, most likely handled by underground networks of traffickers. Fisheries ministry officials say that that amount is essentially captured by small fishing units, called artisan fishermen. But their association has issued an immediate denial, insisting that its members have never captured a single tuna fish, let alone exporting it. The customs service confirmed the lack of export activity in that area. The association says for the ministry to qualify its tuna fishermen as a professional fishing fleet is a wrong statement of facts. It argues that the so-called tuna fishing fleet is composed of a half dozen old trawlers and sardine boats reconverted into tuna catching boats that have been poorly performing and in constant need for repair. This is in sharp contrast to the ships coming from Japan and Korea. With 12 highly efficient ships officially licensed by the Algerian authorities, the Asian fleet active in Algerian waters claims an annual catch of 600 tons. It is therefore, unconceivable that the Algerian fishermen, with their under-performing boats could do more than their Asian peers.
In March 2008, the fisheries ministry convened a meeting of some two dozen trawler owners who are licensed to fish tuna. The meeting was meant to invite them to share the Algerian fishing quota but they insisted that they were under equipped and unable to face the technological capabilities of foreign fleets. Indeed, they are at a competitive disadvantage but that’s not necessarily good news for the fish. Bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean is facing extinction with the pillaging of this dwindling specie. The catches beyond the quotas are generally unreported and the countries that have the means to monitor and enforce agreements refuse to do so to protect their own fishing lobbies. The business of tuna fish is a very profitable activity to the point that so many fish farms have mushroomed around the Mediterranean Sea, in particular in Turkey where supplying fresh fish to these farms has been a priority for the underground players. ICCAT insists that tuna should be sold only to farms that it certifies for traceability and accountability purposes. But there is no guarantee that such rules are applied. In fact, many say that a massive black market that is operating below the radar screen of ICCAT has dominated the sector of late, and aqua farms are part of this network of illegal activity. In addition to their contribution in the pillaging of bluefin tuna, a great many aqua farms are used as money laundering platforms, and Algeria is often seen with suspicion as a component of such activity. Tuna that is unaccounted for is supplied to farms around the region and there is no doubt that quantities exceed those allows by ICCAT and acceptable to scientists. Last year, the national quota earmarked to domestic fishermen in Algeria was managed by an obscure consulting company that favored a single fishing company. That company is reported to have not enough resources. With its small fleet, it is unconceivable that it could handle the task. The company is also said to be owned by individuals who have positions at the fisheries ministry. This is obviously a blatant conflict of interest.
On May 12, 2007, this company was granted the permission to ink an agreement with Turkish businessman and head of the association of Turkish fish farmers, Nedim Ambar. While most observers have no problem with the contract in itself, the lack of its labeling as “export” raises questions about the nature and transparency of this deal, including the traceability of the fish caught under the terms of ICCAT. Critics now consider the agreement a hijacking of the Algerian quota by a foreign entity and its Algerian accomplices using legal loopholes. Recipient farms are said to be not licensed by ICCAT and an untold amount of money is lost by the Algerian treasury, in addition to the harm done to the sea’s ecosystem. The Turks have also been aggressive defending their interests in Algeria. News sources, in particular from El Watan and El Khabar newspapers have reported last year that after Turkey’s ANA Group won a contract to build 30 fishing boats, the Turks have decided to hold the delivery of the ships until Algeria agreed to renew a preferential agreement they had on Algerian tuna fishing. The details of such agreement are unknown. An investigation from EL Watan newspaper revealed that ANA may have originated in Algeria proper, closed its business there and re-opened in Turkey in form of two business entities. Strangely, while one of the two companies ANA International is owned by Turkish interests, ANA Maritime is owned by an Algerian man, who also happens to be a senior executive at the state bank BADR. This bank is the one that financed the construction of the trawlers in Turkey and the launch of ANA International.
Corruption and personal greed are part of the problem in the way bluefin tuna is disappearing along the Algerian shores. Only the return of the rule of law could bring transparency to an otherwise shadowy sector, with consequences on dwindling natural resource
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Originally Posted by lilharcher
