Somali pirates who have wreaked havoc in the Gulf of Aden for merchant ships plying the East African waters, have unexpectedly boosted the fortunes of fishermen working in the coastal waters off Tanzania.
Director of the world famous School of Ocean Sciences at University of Wales, Bangor, Dr John Turner, said illegal fishing trawlers which operated with impunity within the region’s EEZ are now kept at bay, thanks to the presence of Somali pirates and Western military vessels.
“Activities of Somali pirates have significantly reduced illegal fishing in the region and now local fishermen have more fish to catch,†Dr Turner said Friday when talking to Tanzanian journalists visiting the University of Wales, Bangor under a UNESCO and Thomson Foundation project.
He said illegal commercial fishing was increasingly becoming a problem on Tanzania’s EEZ, because the government had failed to buy surveillance high speed boats to patrol the area lying 200 nautical miles from the coastline.
In 2008 a patrol boat from South Africa operating under Southern Africa Development Community joint surveillance of the Indian Ocean, arrested an Oman registered fish with close to 300 metric tonnes of tuna caught within the country’s EEZ.
Over 30 culprits from different nationalities are currently facing charges of illegal fishing at Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court.
Dr Turner said such an arrest represents a tiny percentage of tuna caught by foreign commercial trawlers operating within the country’s EEZ.
World Bank estimates that various species of fish including tuna valued at over US$ 200 million (about 260bn/-) are caught illegally within the country’s EEZ annually.
Meanwhile, a British environmental research expert has called on authorities to involve communities in conservation projects of wildlife and the environment.
Dr Shaun Russell of Wales Environmental Research Hub at University of Wales, Bangor said while working with Mweka College of Wildlife Management over a decade ago, he advised Tanzania National Parks Authority to involve communities living adjacent to wildlife protected areas, other than use force to curb poaching and deforestation.
Dr Russell who is currently also an associate advisor to British Council on environmental issues, said Mweka had done a good job then with European Union funding but since then things don’t seem to be going well.
“Then we had many students from Mweka coming to Wales to study for their masters and PhD (Doctor of philosophy), but now there is nobody,†he said.
He also suggested that compensation for people, who are injured by wildlife should be decided on a formal basis and not on the piecemeal approach that is in operation now.
