Massive strike pits African fishers against ‘superprofitable’ EU firms

Fishers land a haul of tuna from the Indian Ocean – but the catch is supposed to be strictly regulated. Photograph: John Angerson/Alamy

The waters of west Africa and the Indian Ocean boast some of the world’s largest, healthiest populations of tropical tuna, and that makes them havens for industrial tuna fishing fleets, owned by countries vastly richer than the nations whose borders form these coastlines.

In order to protect the fish populations of poorer African nations from rapacious overfishing by richer countries, EU tuna vessels are bound by agreements centred on the sustainability and “social empowerment” of third countries.