Formally registered at the United Nations Ocean Conference in June 2017, Sea Shepherd Global’s Voluntary Commitment #17190 – “Partnership with African Coastal States to Eradicate IUU Fishing in their Sovereign Waters by 2020" – highlights Sea Shepherd’s mission to defend, conserve and protect marine wildlife and their ocean habitat since 1977.

Although national laws and international agreements exist to protect their coastal waters and marine reserves from overfishing and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, Sea Shepherd’s IUU Task Force provides ships and crew which the partner government agencies such as the Coast Guard can use for both long-term training and capacity-building, as well as for patrolling the coastal waters and boarding any vessels suspected of IUU fishing. These partnerships with African Coastal States aim to put an end to the unchecked poaching and IUU fishing that takes place in the Exclusive Economic Zone waters of these sovereign nations.

After the establishment of Operation Albacore (Gabon and São Tomé & Príncipe, 2016) and Operation Sola Stella (Liberia, 2017) in the Gulf of Guinea, Sea Shepherd expanded its mission into East Africa in January 2018 through a new partnership with the Tanzanian government (Operation Jodari). Our latest partnership in Benin (Operation Guegou) was announced after its inaugural patrol in May 2019.

Click here to learn more about Sea Shepherd’s campaigns to fight illegal fishing