SOMALIA: Getting tough on foreign vessels to save local fishermen
NAIROBI, 2 April 2009 (IRIN): Somalia has revoked (ophævet/tilbagekaldt) fishing licences for foreign vessels and is planning a new law to regulate fishing in its waters, a minister told IRIN on 2 April.
The move follows complaints by local fishermen of lost livelihoods because they lacked modern equipment and the means to replace old nets, and were being forced out by foreign-owned vessels.
– I do sympathise with the fishermen and we are working on a new law to regulate the activities of these [foreign] ships, said Abdirahman Ibbi, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources in the new Somali National Unity Government.
Ibbi said an estimated 220 foreign-owned vessels were engaged in unlicensed and illegal fishing in Somali waters. Most were of European origin, he added.
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