In an exclusive interview with the president of the Sierra Leone Artisanal Fishermen for Port Loko and Kambia District and also former president of the West Africa Professional Fishermen Organization, Thomas Ortaim Turay, disclosed that as a country; “we have lost 23 species of fish in our waters through what he described as the very bad fishing methods of locals and other poachers in our seas.”
Turay called on the Government of President Julius Maada Bio to empower the artisanal fishing sector with funds to do local surveillance, adding that they are always at sea on daily basis.
He encouraged Government to borrow leafs from Guinea Bissau which did the same and it was a great success that Sierra Leone can learn from and do more in preventing certain species of our fishes from going into extinction.
He also called on the government to ensure that certain fishing nets are banned; such nets he said are causing more harm than good in the direction of “catching today, what they should catch tomorrow.”
Turay therefore, urged Government to ensure that robust measures are put in place especially for foreign vessels not license to fish in our waters thereby, taking away our best fishes (citing a Korean ship named, Chingy Changah).
In his statement, he applauded the Government of the People’s Republic of China for having brought a boat that now regulates and determines the quantity of fishes Sierra Leone has in its waters.
He admitted that as a nation Sierra Leone lacks the marine capacity to monitor our waters and by such, there would always be fish constraints for “Illegal Unreported and Unprotected (IUU) Fishing Methods,” which he said is not only visible in Sierra Leone, but Africa as a whole and that the Continent is losing over $1 Billion because of such.
He lauded efforts of the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Hon. Emma Kowa, whiles describing her as a listening leader who is ready to work with the Sierra Leone Artisanal Fishermen and the entire sector, ensuring that smuggling of our fishes comes to an end.
