Stolen at Sea: How illegal 'saiko' fishing is fuelling the collapse of Ghana's fisheries

Saiko is the local name for illegal fish trans-shipments in Ghana, where industrial trawlers transfer frozen fish to specially adapted canoes out at sea. It used to be a practice whereby canoes would buy the unwanted by-catch of industrial vessels. However, the practice has developed into a lucrative industry in its own right, for which industrial fishers actively fish. Today, industrial trawlers not only target the demersal (bottom-dwelling) species for which they are licensed, but the same species as the artisanal fishing community, including the severely depleted small pelagics such as sardinella and mackerel. These catches, which often contain juvenile fish, are landed by the saiko canoes for onward sale to local markets. This has severe implications for Ghana’s artisanal fishing sector, which is critical to food security and provides significantly more jobs than the saiko industry