Operation Sola Stella
Sea Shepherd combats illegal fishing in Liberia, West Africa

In February 2017, Sea Shepherd Global launched a campaign in partnership with the Liberian Ministry of National Defense to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the West African coastal waters of Liberia. The campaign has been named Operation Sola Stella, which is Latin for ‘Lone Star’, the motto for the Republic of Liberia.

Developing countries are particularly vulnerable to IUU fishing, which accounts for up to 40% of the fish caught in West African waters. The resources of the Liberian Coast Guard to monitor, control and surveil all of Liberia’s sovereign waters are stretched. Sea Shepherd's mission is to assist them in identifying and arresting the unlicensed foreign industrial vessels operating in its waters, and to protect the six nautical miles closest to shore reserved for subsistence, artisanal and semi-artisanal fishing, an industry which employs 33,000 Liberians.

April 19th, 2022 - In the early morning hours of the 10th of April, Sea Shepherd assisted the Liberian Coast Guard with the arrest of a trawler fishing inside a prohibited area reserved for artisanal fishermen. When the Liberian Coast Guard boarded the vessel and ordered the captain to retrieve his fishing gear, they soon discovered that half of the catch was plastic bags.