By Tatafway Tumoe – SEM Suddenly, with the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) indicting former Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Haja Afsatu Kabba, everyone it seems has suddenly become interested in the manner in which this sector is operating in the country. What most people have however failed to realize is that the present government is contradicting its own position statements when it comes to the issue of fisheries regulations, with some companies being given preferential treatment while others are being vilified. Even as the ACC continues to look into the matter and even as the public waits with bated breath for more news and even as the government makes high sounding commitments to correct the situation, the reality in Sierra Leone’s fish industry continues to be a game played for the benefit of few at the detriment of the nation. While President Koroma seems to be speaking about the need for a strict control of our marine resources, it seems there is a totally different scenario playing in the field. In looking at the manner in which laws are made and broken in the marine and fishing sector of the country, one sees a gross misconception of the rules, or in other words a blatant portrayal of corruption. Just recently, adhering to the fisheries protocol signed by the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (SRFC), Sierra Leone has signed a series of international conventions all aimed at protecting nations engaged in the fishing and marine industry. Unfortunately, while other nations are adhering to these protocols, the government of Sierra Leone is going against its own rules and regulations set up. The most recent case being the granting of a license to the Lebanese owned Sierra Fisheries Company for Pair Trawling, one of the practices which the SRFC and the government of Sierra Leone is totally against. Pair trawling is a type of fishing in which two boats with the same or similar power are used to fish in pairs, using the same fishing net. In Sierra Leone, the Sierra Fisheries Company, has been the sole company recently allowed to use this type of fishing method. To most Sierra Leoneans, the news about the granting of a Pair Trawling license being granted to Sierra Fisheries Company was not news as most citizens are not even aware of this type of system or the effects it has on our dwindling stork of marine resources. Pair Trawling started in Korea and China but was later banned after the marine resources of these two countries was nearly depleted as a result of the method. Both China and Korea have little or nothing left in terms of marine resources in that part of the world because of pair trawling. When the net is let down by the two boats in pair trawling, it is dragged under water for up to six hours, and within this period, a lot of matter, including juvenile fish, egg and larvae get clogged in the net. The result is that nothing is spared in this type of fishing operation. As the pair of boats has to trawl for a long distance, some a kilometer or more, a large number of marine life and all forms of species of fish are caught, even if they are not part of the stipulated catch. Up to fifty percent of such catches from the pair trawling are therefore thrown away as unfit, when in fact these make up the basis for future growth of fish life. Because the nets in pair trawling are wide, nothing is spared. A marine biologist who asked this writer not to be named said it is a disgrace that while Sierra Leone is making laws against pair trawling, Sierra Fishing Company, a company in the country is allowed to undertake it with licenses provided by the same government that signed an agreement banning it! Pair trawling, according to the marine expert, affects all forms of fish. Pelagio fish (fish living near the surface of the water) and Demasal Fish (fish living on the bottom of the sea and the ocean) are all caught in the huge net of the pair trawling boats. Indeed in the Sierra Fisheries Company, an illegal enterprise, known locally as Kaima, which will never be allowed in any of the nations which form part of the Sub Regional Fisheries Commission, is being practiced. When the pair trawling boats come with their catches, half of it usually comprises of eggs, larvae and juvenile fish which is frowned upon in the international market. It is therefore sold in the compound of the Sierra Fisheries Company to local fish mongers who in turn pass it in the markets. This is Kaima, as known in the parlance of the Sierra Fisheries Company. Many of those catches thrown away by the Sierra Fisheries Company boats, and which is known as Kaima is actually palagio fish. When you have such an illegal and nefarious practice being sanctioned by the government, the marine resources of the nation is at risk of being completely wiped out, with the result that Sierra Leone will never benefit anymore from the fishing industry in the immediate near future as it happened in Korea and China. …
Pair trawling and the dangers to Sierra Leone’s marine resources
