Greenpeace: EU parliament must vote no to Western Sahara fisheries
Article image
Greenpeace International today launched a report documenting the increasing private Moroccan fleet in Western Sahara. The combination of that fleet with a new European fisheries agreement with Morocco is not sustainable, according to Greenpeace, calling for the European Parliament to reject renewed EU fisheries in the occupied waters.
Published 02 December 2013


In November, Western Sahara Resource Watch revealed shocking images of the vessel Adrar, in the process of discarding 60 tonnes of sardines. The reason: They were too small for the canning factory. This only vessel is said to have dumped 1000 tonnes of fish into the waters off Western Sahara only this year.

But Adrar is only one of many of an increasingly large Moroccan private fleet offshore Western Sahara. In 2010, the European Commission received a slamming evaluation report stating its previous fisheries agreement in Western Sahara was unsustainable, as all the stocks were overfished. Since then, by Christmas 2012, Morocco entered into a massive 200.000 tonnes/year fisheries agreement with Russia. But furthermore, and not much covered internationally: the private Moroccan fleet has exploded.

Greenpeace International today launched the report "Exporting Exploitation - How retired EU fishing vessels are devastating West African fish stocks and undermining the rights of local people". The publication documents 21 vessels taken into use by Morocco in Western Sahara over the last years only. Of those, 12 have been exported from EU states.

Greenpeace “demands that the EU stop exploiting the fishing grounds off the coast of Western Sahara and Morocco, unless and until it can ensure that fish stocks are managed in a sustainable manner and that the fishery takes into account the wishes and benefits of the people of the territory”.

Download the Greenpeace report “Exporting Overfishing” published today here.

Greenpeace furthermore demands that EU Member States:
• remove excess fishing capacity by scrapping or converting to non-fishing purposes those vessels that have the biggest impact in terms of overfishing and the destruction of marine habitats;
• allocate access to fishing opportunities in a way that rewards fishermen who minimise the environmental impacts of fishing and that maximises the socio-economic benefits for local communities; and
• prevent the transfer of excess fishing capacity to other regions.

Read more on Greenpeace webpages.


EU pushes secretive Morocco trade deal covering Western Sahara

As EU ambassadors give their green light to a new Morocco trade deal, the public is still denied access to the very agreement they are voting on - a striking case of secrecy in Brussels.

01 October 2025

"A declaration of war" - new EU agreement reactions

A wave of reactions is rippling across Europe following the news that the EU is moving ahead with a new trade agreement in occupied Western Sahara. The vote is scheduled for tomorrow.

30 September 2025

Commission Pushes EU-Morocco Trade Deal, Ignoring Democratic Processes and Saharawi Rights

WSRW can today reveal a leaked EU document showing plans to continue trading with products from occupied Western Sahara, in direct violation of earlier rulings by the EU Court of Justice. A vote will take place this Wednesday. 

29 September 2025

Morocco’s thirst for water quenched by Western Sahara winds

Water pouring out of Moroccan faucets is soon powered by energy stolen from occupied Western Sahara.

18 September 2025