Of big and small fish
Morocco on its way to its own fish industry

“Thank goodness there are a lot of fish again because foreign trawlers no longer fish off our coast,” the fish wholesaler in Agadir is pleased to say. Up to now fishing agreements between the EU and Morocco have made it possible for Spanish fleets to overfish Moroccan waters, which in the 1980s numbered among those with the greatest abundance of fish in the world. In return the EU paid for fishing licences to Morocco. In the meantime Morocco has made numerous efforts to build up its own fishing industry. One of the measures is to set up marketplaces in fishing villages that are managed by the government and supported by scientists. In addition, fish processing plants are to be built with the help of foreign investors. The documentary takes a look at the specific way Morocco has chosen to establish its own fishing industry. It examines the questions of whether sustainable fishing functions better if the fishermen make their catch in their own regions and whether such an approach to setting up a fishing industry could also be model for other developing countries.