For those who are looking for an easy life in Gabon, small-scale fishing holds little appeal. As a young fisherman, Mathieu Koffi, told IPS, it is "difficult to get credit to buy new equipment, and it's not easy for fishermen to band together in order to limit expenses." The difficulties of working with outdated equipment combined with a depletion of fish stocks in certain areas have posed challenges to the small-scale fishing industry in recent years.