Fishermen caught poaching

See several posts here on poaching. Came across this article.

Shark Poachers Nailed
Discovery News July 24th

This week, authorities in Mozambique seized and confiscated an unlicensed vessel from Namibia that was illegally fishing for sharks off the southeastern coast of Africa. Although we often hear about ocean poachers, what was found on the vessel makes it easy to understand why shark populations worldwide are nearly all threatened, with some on the brink of extinction.

The Namibian ship, called the Antillas Reefer, had this as its cargo:

43 tons of sharks

4 tons of shark fins

1.8 tons of shark tails

11.3 tons of shark liver

20 tons of shark oil

The value of the catch?
Five million dollars.

The Antillas Reefer almost got away with the crime. A Mozambique company, Sabcal Pescas, first brought the vessel into the region on the pretense of tuna fishing. The Fisheries Ministry there was supposed to issue it a license for this activity but, even before any gear was inspected, the Antillas Reefer went out hunting for sharks—with banned gear. If it weren't for some watchful legit Mozambican fishermen, who spotted the ship, it would still be out in the water hauling up more sharks.

The company that owned the illegal vessel was fined $4.5 million, in addition to the authorities seizing and confiscating the ship.

You can see the problem. One kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of shark anything is worth about $700. That is 70 times the value of the same amount of tuna. So long as there is high public demand for shark fin soup, shark meat, shark teeth souvenirs, shark skin and other shark products, the poaching will continue.

At least authorities seem to be stepping up their efforts. Conservation groups have also been following fishermen that practice shark finning. The below rare footage shows the carnage these ships often leave behind on the ocean floor.

Poaching is just one threat facing sharks now. As Shark Week gets underway at the Discovery Channel, please tune in here again to learn what you can do to help ensure that sharks have a future.

Illegal international fishing impoverishes Guinea's fishermen
Source: IRIN

The livelihoods of fishermen in Guinea are increasingly threatened by the many industrial trawlers from Europe, China, Korea and Russia, which often operate illegally in Guinea's once-abundant waters.

"The exclusive zones that are reserved for local fishing should be recognised by the industrial boats and they should stay away from them because their presence is causing a lot of economic and social problems," Souba Camara, a government port official in Conakry told IRIN. He said it is illegal for industrial boats to fish in areas near the shore designated for local fisherman but the laws are largely ignored.

Enforcing the laws would not just benefit a few fishermen, Camara said. "A local fisherman may have 50 people depending on the earnings from his net." Almost none of the large industrial boats in Guinea's waters are owned by Guineans.

The government is also losing revenue for what is one of the world's poorest countries. More than US$100 million worth of fish are pirated out of Guinea's waters each year, according to a study by London-based Marine Resources Assessment Group.

But it is the local fishermen who are feeling the loss most. "If we could fix this situation so that the big boats stay in their assigned zones away from us [local fishermen] we would be able to do our work," fisherman Mamadou Camara said. "If not, we may not have fish left in our zone within a year."

Guinea's government has tried to ban the export of some species of fish to increase their availability in local markets. However, fishermen IRIN talked with said this just opened the door for more illegal international trade and diminished their earnings further. The government does not have the means to monitor its waters, Souba Camara, the port official, said.

In 2003 authorities attempted a project in which local fishermen used radios to report sightings of pirate ships and other illegal activity to various control posts along the coast, but the initiative lacked funding and in 2006 stopped functioning, the chairman of the Guinea association of local fishermen, Issiaga Daffe told IRIN. Daffe called for renewed monitoring efforts by the government and donors and micro-financing for fishermen.

The safety of fishermen is also a growing concern. The number of boating accidents has increased with the growth in illegal fishing, as many of the illegal boats operate at night without lights. "There have been cases of people being killed," Souba Camara, the official, said.

Despite the increased risks and decreased revenue the fishermen say they have no alternatives but to continue their work. "Fishing is all I know," said Souriba Camara, who owns a three-man wooden boat named "Have Confidence" and hails from a long line of fishermen. "Fishing is who I am," he said.

Asia World News
Posted : Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:39:04 GMT Author : DPA
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian navy officers seized a Thai fishing boat and detained nine people on board for fishing illegally in waters off Malaysia's eastern Terengganu state, reports said Tuesday.

The vessel, believed to be from the southern Thai province of Songkhla, was seized by a navy patrol boat early Sunday said state capital maritime chief Syed Mohamad Fuzi Syed Hasan. "On seeing the navy vessel approaching, the Thai fishing boat tried to flee but failed," Syed Mohamad Fuzi was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency. He said patrol officers detained the skipper and eight crew members, adding that 300 kilograms of catch on board the fishing boat was also seized. Syed Mohamad Fuzi said the suspects, aged between 25 and 45 years, would be placed under remand and are likely to be charged for encroaching and fishing on illegal waters. If found guilty, the skipper faces a fine of 1 million ringgit (303,000 dollars) while each crew member could be fined 100,000 ringgit (31,300 dollars).

Six Sri Lankan fishermen caught poaching in Indian waters were arrested Monday by the Coast Guard and remanded to judicial custody, official sources said.

Their mechanised boat was seized. The men were from Trincomalee in Sri Lanka's east.
"Preliminary interrogation reveals that they had no links to terrorist activity and were merely fishing in our waters," R. Sabaratnam, a police official who took the suspects to prison, told IANS.

Sea Shepard - His method for stopping poachers

Sent in by Fin, thanks.

(CTX) Illegal Fishermen Plunder Liambezi


Sounds like our Fishery!

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Illegal Fishermen Plunder Liambezi
2014-01-30 14:12:45.475 GMT


By George Sanzila
Jan. 30, 2014 (All Africa Global Media) -- Inhabitants of
the Zambezi Region have once again raised concern over
overfishing and the illegal fishing methods being used by
foreigners.

There are serious and widespread concerns that the
uncontrolled plunder of fish on the Namibian side of the Zambezi
and in Lake Liambezi in particular by hordes of foreign
fishermen could deplete the fishery resource. Inhabitants of the
region complain that foreign fishermen have crowded Lake
Liambezi, 68 kilometres east of Katima Mulilo, and that they
have even found new fishing grounds to continue their
unscrupulous activities at places such as Liashulu, Lusu and
Zilitene although their numbers in those areas are said to be
negligible. Information revealed to New Era also indicates that
locals are offered thousands of dollars to conceal the illicit,
but highly lucrative operations. Foreign fishermen are further
said to be selling their catches directly to locals at
exorbitant prices.

According to statistics provided to New Era
by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, between 300
to 400 illegal foreign fishermen were deported last year during
joint operations with law enforcement agencies, but the problem
of illegal fishing persists. Given the gravity of the problem
some people fear that the fish resources available, particularly
in Lake Liambezi may soon become depleted as has been the case
on some lakes and rivers in Africa. Dorothy Kabula, a former
councillor of the Linyanti constituency who travelled to Lake
Liambezi last week in search of fish said she was shocked to
discover that many foreign fishermen inhabit the inland lake to
plunder the country's resources without any action being taken
by immigration officials.

"There's a very big loophole at Lake
Liambezi. Most people I found there are non-Namibians. They have
big containers filled up with freshwater fish that they sell
directly to the locals. How can foreign people just come from
their country and start fishing in our rivers? Because of this
loophole, many foreign nationals are coming in every day. I
bought fish last week. Money that these people generate goes
directly to their own country at the expense of unemployed
locals," Kabula complained bitterly.

According to her, markets such as Kasumbalesa, a border
town located between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and
Zambia where demand for Namibian fish is said to be very high,
is fuelling the exploitation of fish resources by foreign
fishermen from those countries who enter Namibia under the
pretext of visiting only to engage in the illegal plunder of
freshwater fish.

She said existing laws are not enforced by the
authorities or they are too lenient resulting in the current
predicament. "Our fish here goes to Kasumbalesa. That's where
the money is. It would be better if they at least buy fish from
us. At the end of the day Lake Liambezi will have no fish. Our
authorities are only bothering our local people here demanding
fish permits, but do nothing to illegal foreign fishermen. It's
very painful. We are promoting poverty among our people," she
charged.

However, Damian Nchindo, senior fisheries biologist in the
Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources who did not rule out
the possibility of foreign fishermen at Lake Liambezi and
elsewhere said even though the ministry conducts regular
monitoring of rivers, his office has not received any such
concerns from the public and that a follow-up will be made very
soon to ascertain the validity of the claims. "We have not
received that information. We do monitoring all the time
checking particularly for fishing permits and nets used. We have
this problem of locals harbouring foreign fishermen and
sometimes it's very difficult for us to find these people. We
will make follow-ups very soon," promised Nchindo. According to
him even though operations have been conducted before to root
out out illegal foreign fishermen, stakeholder involvement and
teamwork is imperative for the success of such operations.
"Stakeholder involvement and cooperation is important. Like with
us, we just monitor if these people have fishing permits.
Immigration also does their part by arresting culprits according
to the immigration laws or charge them.

Most of the time these
people are just deported and end up coming back again and again,
because they are not given any penalties," stressed Nchindo. He
further said, the Ministry of Fisheries has gone to the extent
of forming fishing committees in areas adjacent to rivers, but
these have been rendered toothless because they lack legal
powers. "We have fishing committees that help us to monitor and
report any unscrupulous fishing activities, but these committees
lack power. Some of the fishing committees particularly those in
conservancy areas are making an effort. Maybe if we legalise
these committees it would help," stressed the fisheries
official.

As part of its sensitisation efforts, the fisheries
ministry also plans on inviting their Zambian counterparts since
the majority of illegal foreign fishermen are suspected to come
from that country, according to Nchindo. "We plan on inviting
Zambian fisheries officials to accompany us to the lake to see
how our resources are being plundered by their nationals," he
said.

Katima Rural constituency councillor Warden Simushi said he
has made illegal fishing one of his priorities this year, adding
that he would leave no stone unturned and that the law will not
be discriminatory, since locals are said to be involved in the
harbouring of illegal foreign fishermen. "I have heard of locals
harbouring foreigners particularly at Muyako. I am busy making
arrangements to root out that problem. I even heard that
foreigners come with large sums of money that they pay to locals
for them to conceal their activities and to be allocated fishing
areas on the island. We must also charge and fine people who are
harbouring foreigners. That is what we are going to do to flush
out these illegal activities," warned Simushi. According to
Simushi fishing committees seem not to work, because of pressure
from the communities themselves. "Fishing committees were
elected by the community. The same community is now giving
pressure to these committees and they are no longer performing
their duties as they should," he said. Zambezi Police Regional
Police Commander, Commissioner Bollen Sankwasa, who is also
unhappy about the alleged plunder, bemoaned the lack of
cooperation between stakeholders saying it is the main
impediment to the success of joint operations. "We lack
cooperation or if it's there it should be revisited. Our main
focus as the police is just to enforce the law, the rest is up
to the other parties to do. Acts are there.

But if they don't
give penalties to the culprits, this problem will be repetitive.
We already had three operations last year. Again our own people
are the ones hiding these foreigners. These days they even
announce on radio that they want fishermen. People from DRC or
Zambia cannot know where Lake Liambezi is. It is our own people
who bring them. We must know this resource is not for one
person, it's for the entire country," he said. Lake Liambezi,
which is fed from the Zambezi River and known for its abundant
fish resources, is often a hotbed for illegal fishing. Many
joint police and fisheries operations against illegal fishing
activities at the lake have been conducted in the past, but the
problem refuses to go away. Towards the end of last year in one
such operations, nine foreign nationals, two Angolans and seven
Zambians were arrested at Lake Liambezi in a joint operation
that also targeted poachers.

What makes foreign fishermen elude
authorities easily is the number of small islands that are
dotted all over the lake making them hard to detect, except by
helicopter patrols. Culprits often erect makeshift shelters and
camp on the islands for days.

The Zambezi region is popular for its freshwater fish,
particularly Tilapia but prices at the local market have also
soared of late with some residents attributing the increase to
foreign fishermen who are said to be selling fish at much higher
prices. Fish is the best and most readily available nutritional
option for the majority of people in the region who cannot
afford the exorbitant price of beef. Many people in the region
also eke out a living from catching and selling fish.

Copyright New Era. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media