Western Indian Ocean Stakeholders Develop Partnerships for Sharing Intelligence on Dark Vessels And Illegal Fishing

The workshop targeted signatories to the Djibouti Code of Conduct, a regional maritime security agreement that promotes information sharing to fight piracy, illegal fishing, trafficking, and other threats to maritime insecurity.

Participants developed a shared vision for collecting intelligence on “dark” vessels operating in the Western Indian Ocean. Secure Fisheries’ Robert Mazurek introduced a new series of workshops, Caught Red-Handed, that aim to standardize approaches to intelligence gathering about illegal fishing. The UN Office of Drugs and Crime is co-sponsoring Caught Red-Handed. In attendance at this meeting were representatives from Kenya Maritime Police, Kenya Port Authority, Kenyan Navy, Madagascar Navy, Djibouti Navy, Djibouti Coast Guard, Mozambique Navy, Mauritius National Coast Guard, Seychelles Coast Guard, Seychelles Air Force, Comorian Coast Guard, Somalia Police Force, Coast Guard Saudi Arabia, Tanzania Navy, Danish Defense Liaison, U.S. Naval Forces Africa, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Embassy, and FISH-i Africa.