The issues: fishing today so we can fish tomorrow
A fishing book that said nothing about the state of the resource would be lying by omission. This last part faces reality: stocks under pressure, a tired lagoon, a changing climate. Then it gives readers their share: clear rules, concrete actions and a charter to sign. The sport angler is not the main problem of the Ivorian sea; he can be part of the solution.
Chapter 1: The state of stocks, what scientists say
The data agree. FAO assessments for the Eastern Central Atlantic, the work of the Centre de Recherches Océanologiques in Abidjan and the IUCN Red List statuses, reported species sheet by species sheet in this book, tell the same story: most coastal stocks in the Gulf of Guinea are fully exploited or overexploited. The pressure comes from everywhere: industrial fleets, including foreign ones, illegal fishing, constantly growing artisanal effort, and soaring urban demand.
The signs can be read with the naked eye on market stalls: smaller fish, rarer prime species, rising prices. The coloured badges in this book translate this reality species by species: green for populations that are still healthy, yellow and orange for those in decline, red for those collapsing. When a species sheet carries an orange or red badge, it is not decoration: it is an instruction.
Chapter 2: Regulations in practice
The framework is set by Law No. 2016-554 of 26 July 2016 on fisheries and aquaculture, supplemented by orders of the ministry in charge of fisheries resources: licences, mesh sizes, zones, closed seasons, protected species. These texts change; the MIRAH services and the harbour master offices publish their current status. The digital version of this book, accessible via the QR code opposite, keeps an updated summary.
What will not change, and what every angler in this book respects without debate: no explosives or poisons, ever; no capture of fully protected species, sea turtles and the manatee first among them; no sale of catches by recreational anglers; and respect for regulated zones, from the port of Abidjan to the protected areas. On a guided trip, your guide or your club is responsible for compliance; when fishing on your own, it is up to you.
Chapter 3: Mangrove, lagoon, climate: what is changing
The Ébrié lagoon is undergoing rapid transformation. Landfill is encroaching on the bays, sand is being dredged, wastewater from the country’s largest city is still waiting for treatment plants, and some urban bays regularly run out of oxygen. The mangrove is retreating, cut for firewood and fish smoking, filled in for construction. Yet every hectare of mangrove lost means one nursery fewer: tomorrow’s threadfins, tilapias and shrimps grow up among these roots.
The climate adds its share: rising sea level is eating away at the coastal sand barrier, erosion shifts the beaches from year to year, and rainfall patterns are becoming erratic, altering the floods that set the rhythm of lagoon life. Scientists are also monitoring the behaviour of the upwelling, on which the whole coastal food chain depends. Anglers have a front-row seat to these changes: their observations, shared with the CRO or through the digital part of this book, have real scientific value.
Chapter 4: Fishing sustainably, the actions that matter
Take less, take better. Keep what you will eat, release the rest: a full cool box has never been proof of talent. Respect sizes: a fish caught before its first spawning is a loan that is never repaid; reference sizes are given in each species sheet. Spare the breeders: the very large individuals of a species are its best spawners, and a photo immortalises them better than a cool box.
Releasing is a skill to learn: keep the fight as short as possible, wet your hands before any contact, remove the hook in the water when possible, use single barbless hooks for catch-and-release fishing, and send fish bloated by the ascent from the depths back down with a weight. A properly released fish has an excellent chance; a fish photographed for five minutes on hot sand has none.
Three special points to finish. Sharks and rays, whose species sheets in chapter VII almost all carry a dark badge: systematic release recommended. Species with an orange or red badge: we do not target them, full stop. And juvenile threadfins and croakers, so common in the lagoon: their place is in the water, where in two years they will be worth ten times today’s weight.
Chapter 5: The Gulf of Guinea Angler’s Charter
Ten commitments. Neither a regulation nor a sermon: the shared definition of what a good angler is, here. Sign it, have others sign it, post it at the club, the marina, the landing site.
Name, date and signature.