An overview of fish removals from Morocco by Distant-Water Fleets, 1950-2010

Morocco has productive fishing grounds. As such, especially the Atlantic areas of Morocco are targeted by distant water fleets from more than 19 countries, which together caught approximately 90.8 million tonnes between 1950 and 2010. These foreign countries reported 64 million tonnes to FAO during the same time period for the entire Eastern Central Atlantic area (FAO area 34), which suggests massive underreporting. Asian fleets were found to have the highest level of underreporting, followed by Western Europe, with 300% and 80% higher catches than reported landings, respectively. Foreign catches increased dramatically after Morocco extended its jurisdiction over the southern areas in the mid-1970s, after which foreign catches decreased despite increasing fishing effort, suggesting over-exploitation.