Author: Babagana Abubakar

E-MAIL: babaganabubakar2002@yahoo.com
PERMANENT ADDRESS: ALHAJI BUKAR KUYA HOUSE, OPPOSITE ABUROS MOSQUE, FEZZAN WARD, MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA
Tel: +2348062220179 Skype: babagana.abubakar

Emerging Challenges
Threatening the Atlantic and
Indian Oceans in Africa

Introduction:

An ocean is a body of saline water that composes much of a planet's hydrosphere. Ocean is the largest
living space on Earth; it covers almost 71% of its surface. Geographically Oceans are divided into 5
different types; These are, in descending order by area, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, and Arctic
Oceans. The word sea is often used interchangeably with "ocean" in American English but, strictly
speaking, a sea is a body of saline water partly or fully enclosed by land for example the Red Sea and the
Mediterranean sea, although the Caspian sea is completely enclosed by land making it a landlocked body
of water, but it is also regarded as a Sea.

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 Fig.1: World Map showing the World Oceans and Seas:

As it is the principal component of Earth's hydrosphere, the world ocean is integral to all known life,
forms part of the carbon cycle, and influences climate and weather patterns. It is the habitat of more than
200,000 known species, although much of the oceans depths remain unexplored, and over two million
marine species are estimated to exist. Surprisingly man has spent and still keeps spending more in the
exploration of the Outer Space than exploring the Ocean sitting right in front of his habitat.

The major oceanic divisions are listed here below (The list is in descending order of area and volume):

Area Volume
Ocean Avg. depth Coastline
Location (km2) (km3)
Name (m) (km)
(%) (%)

Pacific 168,723,000 669,880,000

1 Separates Asia and Oceania from the Americas 3,970 135,663
Ocean 46.6 50.1

2 Atlantic Separates the Americas from Eurasia and Africa 85,133,000 310,410,900 3,646 111,866

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 Area Volume
Ocean Avg. depth Coastline
Location (km2) (km3)
Name (m) (km)
(%) (%)
Ocean 23.5 23.3

Indian 70,560,000 264,000,000

3 Washes upon southern Asia and separates Africa and Australia 3,741 66,526
Ocean 19.5 19.8

Southern Sometimes considered an extension of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian 21,960,000 71,800,000
4 3,270 17,968
Ocean Oceans, which encircles Antarctica 6.1 5.4

Arctic Sometimes considered a sea or estuary of the Atlantic, which covers much of 15,558,000 18,750,000
5 1,205 45,389
Ocean the Arctic and washes upon northern North America and Eurasia 4.3 1.4

361,900,000 1,335,000,000
Total World Ocean 3,688 377,412
100 100

For centuries humans have regarded Ocean as a home of an inexhaustible supply of food, a useful
transport route, and a convenient dumping ground - simply too vast to be affected by anything we do.

The continent of Africa is surrounded or bordered by two out of the five World Oceans namely
the Atlantic Ocean to its Western coast and the Indian Ocean to its eastern coast.
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's oceanic divisions, following the Pacific Ocean.
With a total area of about 106,400,000 square kilometers (41,100,000 sq. mi), it covers approximately
20 percent of the Earth's surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area. And it bordered Africa
from the Western, central and its south-Western parts starting all the way from Morocco down to the
Southern tip of Africa; the republic of South Africa at Cape of Good Hope where it meets or join the
Indian Ocean.

Fig.2: Showing a map of the Atlantic Ocean: Fig.3: Showing a photo of where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean:

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km2
(27,240,000 sq. mi) (approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface). It is named after India. The
Indian Ocean is known as Ratnkara (Sanskrit), "the mine of gems", in ancient Sanskrit literature and as

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Hind Mahsgar (Devangar), "the great Indian sea", in Hindi). It is bordering the African continent
from its Western part starting from Somalia the horn of Africa all the way down to South Africa where it
terminates at the Cape of Good Hope at the point it meets the Atlantic Ocean.
Fig.4: Showing a Map of the Indian Ocean: Fig.5: Showing the meeting point of the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean:

Arising Problem:

Despite the role that Ocean plays in relation to life as in respect to forming part of the carbon cycle,
influencing climate and weather patterns, providing habitat to more than 200,000 known species and over
two million marine species as well as using it for socio-economic activities such as navigation, pleasure
(cruising),medicines, tourism (Ocean beaches) and other maritime activities of great economic
importance to nations and humans including cargo transportation across the globe using marine vessels,
ships, boats etc for purposes of imports and exports which keeps forming the economic backbones of
Coastal nations not only in Africa, but in all the continents, but yet both the two Oceans are
experiencing diverse nature of challenges as a result of man activities in Africa resulting to
changing the roles of this once friendly Oceans in Africa becoming life threatening once ,
particularly over the last few decades when these activities finally pushed both oceans to their
limits.

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Some of these challenges are as highlighted below:

Nature of challenges facing the Atlantic ocean in Africa:

1. The petroleum exploration activities going on in the Gulf of Guinea region in the Oil rich
nations like the Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, Nigeria and Angola
among others not mentioned here are continuously causing oil spillages in the process of
drilling, bunkering and discharging of petroleum products within the Atlantic Ocean in
the respective territories; although due to many efforts coming from the governments,
Non-governmental and some private sector organizations in the region as well as the
international communities especially the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP)
in particular whose efforts made the Shell petroleum company commit the payment of
(USD) One Billion Dollars ( $ 1,000,000,0000) in cleaning some portions of polluted areas
in the region including some parts of the Atlantic Ocean territorial waters has resulted in
making almost all the petroleum exploration companies working in the region be working
very cautiously and environmental friendly in their daily operational activities in the
recent times in order to prevent the pollution of the Atlantic Ocean through their
exploration activities, but however with the advent of a new militant group called the
Niger Delta Avengers in Nigeria whose primary claims were that of fighting for the rights
of their people according to them in the Oil rich areas of the Nigeria territorial areas
including the Atlantic Ocean coastlines of Nigeria, but whose actions remains that of
incessant bombings of some petroleum operating facilities in the area that lick oils and
eventually keeps polluting the Atlantic Ocean in this region. This pollution caused in some
areas is even beyond the survival of some Atlantic coastal marine lives as pollution
doesnt have boundaries. In fact this negative activities has made the petroleum
exploration activities and pollution in this area assumes the form of a vicious circle in
some areas as illustrated below:

Chart 1: Showing the vicious cycle of the petroleum exploration activities:

Decrease
in
Atlantic
Marine
lives Booming of
Oil facilities

Pollution

Pollution
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Fig. 6 A: World Map indicating the location of Gulf of Guinea: Fig. 7: The map of Gulf of Guinea in Africa:

In view of the above spillages in the Atlantic Ocean caused by these militants in the region keeps
causing increasing oil spillages resulting in rapid decline in Fish, Planktons, Shrimps, Crabs, Cray
Fish and other sea lives along the Coasts and portions of the Atlantic Ocean itself in the region.
Despite the single efforts of the government of the federal republic of Nigeria in increasing pollution
monitoring and providing mitigation measures as well as spending millions of Dollars (USD $) in
cleaning and providing surveillance here in this part of the Atlantic coast, but most of the
remaining Gulf of Guinea member nations remains silent on this issue of depolluting the Gulf of
Guinea Atlantic region because of the size, financial costs and lack of technical expertise working on
environment issues in their respective nations.
Fig. 8: showing satellite imagery of an oil spill in the Atlantic Ocean: Fig. 9: Also Showing an Oil spill in the Gulf of Guinea:

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ii). Apart from the petroleum exploration activities described above some maritime activities in
Africa also adds to this pollution, for example the incessant degreasing (washing of
chemicals stained on the Quay Aprons of Sea ports) activities going-on on regular basis
mostly after the discharging of chemicals and related cargo at the African Sea ports facing
the Atlantic ocean are continuously polluting the Atlantic Ocean, thereby causing harms to
both marine/aquatic as well as human lives to some extent in this part of the Atlantic Ocean.
Furthermore the regular chemicals used in the washing of these Quay Aprons from some of
these African ports are sometimes combined with the original chemicals intended to be
clean or washed away deposited on these Quay Aprons of the Ports such as potassium
nitrates, potassium chlorides, phosphorus, Sulphur, fertilizers of various concentrates and
other industrial chemicals imported or exported through the seaports were discovered to
be forming unexpected solutions possibly dangerous ones when combined with the
solvents used to clean the Quay Aprons . And these solutions are consequently emptied in to
the Atlantic Ocean without carrying out any form of regular environmental impact
assessments as per operations on these newly formed solutions. Although there are no
direct research on the harms of these chemicals in the Ocean marine World, but it is likely to
have a consequence on the marine lives with time. However just like the Ocean pollution
due to petroleum exploration activities the physical pollutants from the degreasing of the
Quay Aprons are sometimes visible even to the naked eyes in the waters of the Atlantic
Ocean in the region.
Popular Sea ports in this western portion of Africa facing the Atlantic Oceans includes
Casablanca, Lagos, Dakar, Abidjan, Cape Town, Libreville, Banjul, Luanda, Duala,
Nouakchott, Cotounou, Doula ,Tamale, Port Harcourt, Malabo and many others.

iv. Poor waste management culture in most of the African coastal cities especially those facing
the Atlantic Ocean such as Freetown, Abidjan, Tamale, Monrovia, Cabinda, Accra and many
others not mentioned here is resulting in making the Atlantic ocean and its territorial
waters get polluted. The Atlantic Ocean here is the final destination for much of the locally
generated household wastes coming from the Atlantic Ocean coastal towns and cities. In fact
this explains why plastic bags, containers, polyethylene products and other light industrial
products are always found in the Atlantic waters at the African Coast.

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 Fig. 10: Showing a polluted Coast of a city in this region: Fig. 11: Showing a polluted portion of the Gulf of Guinea:

v. Piracy in the Atlantic Ocean

Pirates in the Atlantic Ocean and its territorial waters in Africa are often associated to stealing of
oil cargo and or kidnapping for ransoms. The culprits are often heavily armed criminal
enterprises, in 2012, the International Maritime Bureau, Oceans beyond Piracy and the
Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Program reported that the number of vessels attacks in
the Atlantic Ocean territory of West Africa through the Gulf of Guinea region along reached a
world high, with 966 seafarers attacked within a year.

Fig.12 A & B: Showing some pirate suspects arrested in the sea:

A. B.

According to the Control Risks Group, pirate attacks in this part of the Atlantic Ocean especially
around the Gulf of Guinea region had by mid-November 2013 maintained a steady level of
around 100 attempted hijackings in the year. For some time, smaller ships shuttling employees
and materials belonging to the oil companies with any involvement in oil exploration had been
at risk in the Atlantic Ocean around the Gulf of Guinea region.

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Pirates attack in this part of the Atlantic Ocean is mainly around the creeks, territorial waters of
the Atlantic and even Oil rigs operating in the Atlantic rather than in the open Ocean especially
in the ocean areas beyond national jurisdictions.

The Atlantic territorial waters of Africa accounted for 427 of the 1434 attacks in African waters
between 2003 and 2011.
The Pirates in this Atlantic Ocean region are increasingly modifying their tactics by hijacking
fishing vessels, particularly within Togo, Benin and Nigerian territorial waters, and using same to
attack other vessels operating off the coasts of many African coastal countries. As noted by
Malaquais (2012), piracy here is the organized, sometimes highly sophisticated, illicit taking of
oil. They steal the oil, make a couple of black market circles of the stuff, and then deposit it back
into the global supply chain. This explains why the Nigerian president at a recent summit on
anti-corruption in London on the 12th May, 2016 call on the international community to declare
stolen oil as illicit commodity and authorities should consider it as a blood oil just like the case
with the blood diamond.

This prates activities here is seriously affecting the economy of the coastal countries whose
economies are directly depending on the Atlantic Ocean for example, trade of Benin's major
port, the Port of Cotonou, was reported in 2012 to have dropped by 70 percent. The cost of
piracy in this part of the Atlantic ocean in Africa due to stolen goods, security, and insurance has
been estimated to be about USD $4 billion in 2015.

NATURE OF CHALLENGES FACING THE INDIAN OCEAN

i) Just like the Atlantic coastal cities/towns in Africa many of the Indian Ocean coastal
cities/towns in the eastern part of Africa bordering the Indian ocean such as
Mogadishu, Port Louis, Kisi-mayo, Mombasa, Dares Salam, Victoria, Pemba,
Zanzibar, Toamasina, Beira and to some extent even Maputo, Durban, Port Elizabeth
in South Africa keeps generating local wastes that are mostly ending up in the Indian
oceans as their final destinations.
ii) Similar to the Atlantic Coast the Indian Ocean coast is also polluted by the maritime
activities through degreasing activities in the various Sea ports facing the Indian
ocean popular sea ports in this region includes Mogadishu, Djibouti, Port
Elizabeth, Mombasa, Dares Salam, Maputo, and East London and some many
others.
iii) Dynamite fishing which is also called blast fishing is another major issue affecting
the Indian Ocean in Africa. The coasts of the Eastern part of Africa is blessed with
extensive network of coral reefs whose biodiversity and beauty supports major
artisanal fishing and tourism industries in the East-African countries like
Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, Mauritius, Comoros islands, Madagascar and
South Africa among others. Unfortunately due to the fact that explosives are
cheap and easily accessible to fishers/fishermen in some of these East and
South Eastern-African countries the fisher men in the region use them for
fishing purposes. The explosives are used for blasting to kill fish inside the
Indian Ocean territories in order to catch more fish at once or in one outing. A
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 blast can lead to a catch of up to 400 kg of fish and a profit of US$1,800 in
market sales, a lucrative short-term profit despite the long-term destruction
left behind.
These Dynamites/Bombs or Explosives are usually sourced from mining,
demolition, and road construction enterprises for these blast fishing sometimes
they are even made at home locally such as the Bottle bombs made with
kerosene and fertilizer and diesel.

Fig.13: A photo of an unexploded bottle Bomb: Fig.14: Showing a photo of Dynamite fishing in the Indian Ocean:

A single blast in blast fishing can kill hundreds of fish in seconds, destroys large numbers of fish
and other marine animals and their nearby habitats and yet indirectly also kills and damage
many of the coral reefs around which supports rich array of marine animals of the Indian ocean.

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Fig.15 A & B: Showing photos of two marine animals on the Coast of Indian Ocean accidentally killed in blast fishing:

A. B.

In view of the above act Strewn in the shallows of the Indian Ocean off East-African Coast lie
shards of dead coral reefs in addition to continuing destabilizing of the ecosystem within this
catchment area or region in addition actions destroying the geological strata of the Indian Ocean.

Imageries; 1 A & B: Showing the geographically intensity of the Dynamite Fishing in Tanzanias territorial waters of the Indian Ocean:

A. B.

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 iv) Similar to piracy in the territorial waters of the Atlantic Ocean in African, piracy is
another addition to the issues affecting livelihood and economic activities in the
Indian Ocean. Piracy in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia has been a threat
to international shipping since the second phase of the Somali Civil War in the early
21st century to an extent that it impeded the delivery of shipments and increased
shipping expenses, costing an estimated $6.6 to $6.9 billion a year in global trade in
2011 according to Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP) and the German Institute for
Economic Research (DIW).
Piracy has been on the increase here since the last decade for instant there were
151 attacks on ships in 2011, compared with 127 in 2010. Although due to the
ongoing efforts of the international community piracy on marine commercial vessels
in this part of the Indian Ocean has drastically reduced between the years 2013 to
some parts of 2015, but yet the attacks continue with the fishing vessels operating
in the this Indian Ocean region. For example in March, 2015 two Iranian vessels
were attacked and in November, 2015 one Iranian and a Thai vessel were also
attacked.
Fig.16: Map of areas under threat by Somali pirates (20052010):

POSITION OF GOVERNMENTS OF AFRICA ON THE ABOVE DISCUSSED CHALLANGES

Almost all the governments in the coastal areas of Africa facing the Atlantic and or the Indian
Oceans have impressive policies good enough to stop the issues of oil spillages, pollution
through degreasing chemicals/solvents, controlling piracy as well as stopping blast fishing in the
Oceans in Africa, but when compared to the physical realities that keeps happening the truth
remains that these policies are not effective either due to poor implementation or lack of the

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 needed expertise, facilities or the interest to execute them or possibly the political instabilities
happening in many of the African countries as well as lack of financial resources. Whatever the
case may be the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans both remains under threat from human
activities going on in Africa.

RECOMMENDATION

i. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations
Environmental Programme (UNEP) should use their global outreach, positions as well as
their capacities and resources to help African countries stop Blast fishing in African Coast
which is still ongoing.
ii. International security organizations such as INTERPOL, NATO, ECOMOG, AFRICOM and
others should use their strengths and capacities to directly stop piracy in both the Atlantic
and the Indian Oceans territories of Africa.
iii. International organizations whose works that are directly related to Ocean and Pollution
such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Atomic Energy
(IAEA) among others should send their teams of experts/ researchers to come and
investigate the trends of these menaces and proffer a possible lasting solution.

iv. The United Nations should use its capacity to educate and convinced the African Union to
pass a resolution making it compulsory on all the African Coastal Countries to set up ocean
regulatory bodies in their respective countries.

v. African governments and organizations like the African Development Bank as well as the
New partnership for Economic Developments (NEPAD) should use their capacities to
promote non-petroleum exploration activities in the petroleum rich coast of Africa in order
to reduce the level of Oil spillages in Ocean in Africa.

vi. Organizations like the IMO should assist with her technical know-how on how to educate
the managements of the various Sea Ports in Africa, especially on how to be degreasing the
Quay Aprons of the Sea Ports in Africa without necessarily causing Pollution of the Ocean.
vii. The organization of the petroleum exporting countries (OPEC) should use its capacity to find
a way in controlling the incessant oil spillages going on in the African Gulf of Guinea region
since it has many member countries in Africa.

viii. The use of modern satellite technology in fighting piracy should be encouraged by the
relevant organizations such as the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs
(UNOOSA), National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), European Space
Agency (ESA) among other giants in the Space industry. Technologies such as Automatic
Identification System (AIS) (an automatic tracking system used on ships and by vessel
traffic services (VTS) for identifying and locating vessels by electronically exchanging
data with other nearby ships, AIS base stations, and satellites) can be very useful in this

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 regard, because this can help locate pirates before or even after Ship/vessel attacks as it
gives room to making arrests or confronting this pirates at the right time and on the
right target if so happens.

Fig. 17: A marine traffic coordinator using AIS and radar:

ix. The international community and the African Diaspora should complement the efforts
on the issue of maritime security and pollution in Africa through addressing policy and
governance issues as well as promoting the region to supplement the Worlds economy
growth.
x. Companies and experts in recycling of waste as well as those in the green technology
should use the opportunity of this existing and untapped world (Gulf of Guinea region)
or market to create good business opportunities for themselves in one hand and help
reduce the level of recyclable substances going in to the Atlantic ocean in this region in
the other.

xi. The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) should use its capacity to
influence relevant stakeholders and governments in Africa to accept and consider the
use of satellite technology for an effective surveillance and monitoring in the African
Oceans (Atlantic and the Indian Ocean coasts) in order to avert possible Blast fishing,
toxic waste dumping as well as Oil spillages in the African Coastal and Ocean territories.

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 CONCLUSION

The Author cited how the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans are polluted and or destroyed in the
African Ocean territorial areas in respect of activities related to petroleum explorations,
Dynamite fishing, Sea Port degreasing activities and through generated domestic wastes.

Despite all efforts coming from various stakeholders both internationally and within Africa, but
the positions of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in Africa are still calling for more advocacy,
efforts, regulations and enforcements in order to make the World Oceans a better, safer and a
cleaner place as expected and in order for the Ocean to keep supporting the economic, maritime
and similar activities as well as to sustain livelihood that depends on it or else otherwise these
trend will ever remain on the increase.

Thank you for listening.

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8756N.jpg
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x96QotXMAhUCAcAKHWmjAL0Q_AUICCgC#imgrc=NomtWTiQ7ElOCM%3A
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 Author-BABAGANA ABUBAKAR

UNCCPP, Masters, BSc, Fellow African Scientific Institute, Alumni United Nations Institute for Training & Research-Switzerland.

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