ROBERTSPORT, Liberia — The sun was scorching hot in the town of Robertsport as James Dayougar shook debris from his nets, which he’d just returned from fishing with moments earlier. His eyes looked bloated, the nets disheveled. With just a few fish in his canoe, James’s day at sea had been a rough one. He sat down by his canoe and folded his arms to speak with Mongabay. “Whenever they pass … it is difficult to get fish from that entire area,” he said, referring to the industrial trawlers that regularly intrude on fishing grounds within 6 nautical miles (11 kilometers) of shore that are supposed to be reserved for artisanal fishers like himself. Now the government of Liberia plans to expand industrial bottom trawling in the country, authorizing a new fishery for high-value shrimp worth $80 per kilogram ($36 per pound). Dayougar’s statement expresses an age-old scuffle between artisanal fishers and industrial trawlers in these waters, one that many fishers here fear is about to get worse. Bottom trawling is a widespread fishing technique in which vessels drag weighted nets and rigid gear along the seabed, scooping up everything in their path. Conservationists say this causes long-term damage to seabed habitats and ecosystem functions, and catches sea life indiscriminately. The Liberian government’s decision to open a shrimp trawl fishery was informed by data collected during experimental shrimp fishing in 2021 and 2022 that culminated in the development of a draft shrimp fisheries management plan. According to the National Fisheries…This article was originally published on Mongabay