Mombasa Declaration on IUU Fishing Adopted as China Declines to Sign

On June 17, at the 11th Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, Kenya, fifteen nations adopted the Mombasa Declaration to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Signatories include seven African countries (Cameroon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, the Republic of the Congo and Somalia) together with Belgium, France, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru and South Korea. The pact calls for greater transparency of fishing vessels, modernised digital registries, publication of licences and ownership data, and unique vessel identifiers to improve monitoring and enforcement.

China, which operates the world’s largest distant‑water fleet and is identified as the top illegal‑fishing offender, refused to sign the declaration, and Russian representatives were absent. Ghana’s fisheries minister Emelia Arthur highlighted that over 60% of the country’s animal protein comes from fish and about 10% of its population depends on the fisheries value chain, underscoring the declaration’s importance for food security and coastal economies. The agreement also noted significant economic losses in West Africa and the Indian Ocean region attributed to illegal Chinese vessels.