Foreign Bottom Trawling is Exacerbating Food and Nutrition Insecurity, New Study Finds

Every day, foreign fishing fleets haul nutrient-rich fish out of the waters of countries with some of the world’s highest levels of malnutrition and food insecurity. A new study, led by Oceana scientists and published in npj Ocean Sustainability, finds that if that catch stayed local instead of being shipped abroad, it could improve nutrient intake for up to 10.6 million people in 35 countries, especially West African nations. 

Foreign fishing vessels often travel to the waters of the countries that depend the most on the ocean for food. There, many engage in bottom trawling, a destructive practice that drags heavy nets across the seafloor and leaves behind a trail of damage. According to catch data used in the analysis, foreign fishing trawlers catch over 6 million metric tons of fish annually across the world.

The study finds that these industrial fleets are creating a global imbalance in nutrients by transferring wild fish from nutritionally insecure places to countries that are already more nutritionally secure. Keeping this catch in local markets for domestic consumption could meaningfully improve nutrient access for coastal populations that need it most.

“Behind these numbers are real communities. In many coastal countries, especially in West Africa, fish is one of the most accessible sources of essential nutrients for people’s health and well-being,” said lead author and Oceana Senior Marine Scientist Dr. David Costalago.

If more fish were caught for domestic consumption rather than shipped abroad, people in Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d’Ivoire could see some of the largest improvements in access to key nutrients. For example, in Guinea-Bissau, most people (99.9%) are calcium deficient and could transition to an adequate intake of this nutrient if they could eat the retained catch.

“Aquatic foods are among the richest natural sources of nutrients that many people around the world lack, including vitamin B12, iron, zinc, calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids,” said Oceana Science Advisor Dr. Chris Golden, co-author of the study and associate professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Our findings show that the way fisheries are managed and how seafood moves through global markets can have profound implications for human nutrition, particularly in countries where nutrient deficiencies remain widespread.”

Millions of people could benefit from more equitable access to aquatic food resources. Governments can incorporate food and nutrition security into fisheries management and access agreements, improve transparency around foreign fishing activities, and prioritize policies that ensure local communities benefit from fish that are sustainably harvested from their own waters.

“Policymakers should ensure that fisheries access agreements and management decisions explicitly consider food and nutrition security alongside economic and environmental objectives. Doing so could help make ocean resources work better for the people who need them most,” said Costalago.