The status of hake fisheries off western Africa and the role played by subsidised fishing fleets

The project aim was to investigate the impacts of subsidized fishing vessels on the sustainability of hake fisheries of three African case-study countries: Namibia, Morocco, and Mauritania. The project was one of several commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature, which sought to evaluate the impact of subsidized vessels at the level of species or species groups. At the inception of the project, species groups in the study other than hake included tuna; cod; swordfish, squid, octopus, and other cephalopods; groupers and wrasses; and Patagonian toothfish.

The approach used in this study was to access secondary material from a number of sources, including internationally available data and reports, in-country data and reports, and discussions with local experts. The team of consultants selected for this study comprised resource economists and assessment scientists with firsthand experience in the fisheries sectors and economic development issues in Namibia, Morocco, and Mauritania.