welcome to business africa i m stephen beers in berlin thanks for joining us illegal fishing has long been a problem for west africa where maritime surveillance is weak and coastguards typically under equipped the environmental groups see shepherd estimates that around forty percent of the catch in african waters is illegal the n.g.o.s lately been working with the liberian government on coastal surveillance they seem to be making progress take a look. an inspection aboard a spanish fishing vessel it looks like a bumper hole for liberia s coast guard one hundred eighty seven blue sharks to touch fins and baby sharks it s grim and yet it s all too typical forty percent of the fishing off west african coast is illegal that s according to the ngo sea shepherd which has been supporting liberia s coast guard for two years. most of the vessels that are fishing illegally are from china all the european union. china has