Fisherfolk across the globe are under attack. In the name of the “Blue Economy” and “climate solutions,” governments and corporations are stealing ancestral waters, displacing communities, and destroying the very ecosystems they claim to protect. What is railroaded as a crisis-averting sustainability strategy has unfurled itself as a cover for imperialist plunder, militarization, and corporate monopolies over our seas. From industrial aquaculture that poisons coasts, to marine protected areas that strip away customary rights, to militarized zones that turn fishing grounds into battlefields—fisherfolk are being robbed of their livelihoods, their culture, and their sovereignty.

The United Nations Oceans Conference recently concluded at Nice, France on June 2025 reiterated its commitments to making dents into achieving Sustainable Development Goal 14. With 51 states, including the European Union, ratifying the UN High Seas Treaty, the UNOC signifies another year of failure in addressing the escalating concerns of fisher peoples and coastal communities, especially in the Global South.

The resulting “Nice Ocean Action Plan” is a non-binding agreement between states that describes voluntary actions under the guise of controlling pollutants, mitigating climate change, and conserving marine resources. Its call for 30-by-30, that is putting at least 30% of the total terrestrial and inland water, marine and coastal areas under state protection, remain vague and ultimately pay mere lip service in addressing the primary causes of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, overcapacity and overfishing, climate change, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, pollution and aquatic ecosystems degradation. Notably, two of the biggest polluters and ocean-grabbers—the United States and China—refused to commit to the targets.

Despite promoting sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, actions aimed to uphold SDG 14 historically led to a systematic war against Southern small-scale and artisanal fishers. The thrust towards sustainable blue economies subjects small-scale fisherfolk, Indigenous peoples, and coastal communities to imperialist plunder, militarization, and ocean and resource grabbing.

Transnational corporations increasingly dominate ocean governance spaces, channeling investments into ‘blue foods’ production and ‘blue carbon’ offsetting projects. This prioritizes corporate profits over the survival of fishing communities. The result: loss of customary rights as fishers are excluded from ancestral waters, human rights violations through community displacement and harassment, and environmental destruction from industrial aquaculture, which pollutes with antibiotics, pesticides, plastics, and chemicals, creating dead zones and threatening wild fish populations.

These corporate-driven projects promote false climate solutions, from mangrove restoration schemes that erase fisherfolk stewardship, to carbon offsetting ventures that commodify the ocean. Meanwhile, Asia—producing 45% of global landings and 85% of aquaculture production—becomes ground zero for exploitative food chains that funnel fish and derivative fish products into fast food and processed goods industries. Capture fisheries and aquaculture production monopolies remain as significant drivers of unjust, inequitable, unhealthy, and unsustainable food systems while TNCs take advantage of the ungoverned seas to create lawless ports for IUUF and overfishing.

Pollution from large-scale industrial aquaculture includes chemical additives, antibiotics, pesticides, plastics, and carcinogenic substances, creating dead zones and endangering wild fish populations, impacting coastal areas and waters[1]. Meanwhile, blue carbon projects like mangrove restoration and the demarcation of marine protected areas remove small-scale fishers of their identity as custodians of the seas, taking away their rights to livelihood[2]. These so-called climate solutions harp on shared coastal stewardship between peoples and the private sector, anchoring technological fixes at the core of transition and in addressing the world’s largest carbon sink, at the expense of fundamental human rights and people’s food sovereignty.

Fisherfolk are among the lesser-seen victims of imperialist wars that militarize the seas. The US-Israeli Zionist war has set its sights on the Red Sea, shared by Sudan, Palestine, and Egypt, in order to gain a strategic foothold against the resisting Palestinian peoples. In July, the Israeli navy carried out relentless air strikes on the Yemeni ports of Hudaydah, Ras Issa and al-Salif. While unsuccessful in dealing substantial wins in the Red Sea, US imperialism has transformed the seas into a strategic battleground where naval blockades, mines, and foreign warships choke access to ancestral waters, crippling livelihoods and forcing thousands into hunger and displacement. 

Across the Global South, fisherfolk are already experiencing the devastating consequences of the blue economy framework, climate crises, and wars:

• Chile: The new Fisheries Act granted 55% of national landings to industrial fishing while artisanal fishers are left with only 45%, breaking promises to prioritize small-scale livelihoods.
• India: Fisherfolk lose income when climate emergencies like heatwaves trigger government sea bans, with no compensation mechanisms in place.
• Sri Lanka: Communities in Mannar face displacement, militarization, and harassment as lands are taken for “sustainable energy” and sand-mining projects.
• Indonesia: President Joko Widodo’s Blue Economy initiative has fueled ocean grabbing, criminalization of resistance, and destructive projects like land reclamation and intensive shrimp farming.
• Philippines: Development aggression and imperialist tensions in the Indo-Pacific put fisherfolk at the crossroads of war. The planned U.S. ammunition factory in Subic Bay threatens to escalate conflicts with China, particularly in the West Philippine Sea.
• Palestine: Zionist occupational forces imposed deadly restrictions on fishing rights, limiting fishing zones to only 3 nautical miles, and even total fish bans at times. 

Call to action

We call on fisherfolk, coastal communities, workers, peasants, Indigenous peoples, and allies across the world to rise together against ocean grabbing, false climate solutions, and imperialist wars. The struggle to save our fishers is the struggle to save our oceans—and this is inseparable from the fight for people’s rights, sovereignty, and peace.

To build a just and sustainable future, we must confront the corporate-driven blue economy that commodifies the seas and undermines communities. We demand a food system that is just, equitable, healthy, and sustainable—one that:

• Centers fisherfolk and coastal communities as custodians of the seas and defenders of marine biodiversity.
• Respects sovereignty and customary rights, ensuring that ancestral waters remain in the hands of the people who depend on them for survival.
• Rejects corporate monopolies and false climate solutions, ending destructive industrial aquaculture, ocean grabbing, and carbon offsetting schemes that displace communities.
• Secures people’s food sovereignty, guaranteeing access to nutritious, affordable, and sustainable foods for present and future generations.
• Links the struggle for healthy oceans with the struggle for peace, rejecting militarization and imperialist conflict that threaten both lives and livelihoods.

Resist the plunder of our coasts and resources!             

From the river to the oceans, fisherfolk reclaim our rights!

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