NIMASA To Tackle Illegal, Unregulated Fishing Activities In Nigerian Waters

 NIMASA To Tackle Illegal, Unregulated Fishing Activities In Nigerian Waters

Oluwatoyin Mathnuel Publisher insightmagonline

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has sought partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, to tackle Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing activities in Nigerian waters.

The House of Representatives, had in June 2021, expressed worry that the country loses $70 million annually to Chinese and other European trawlers due to illegal fishing in the nation’s waters as observed by the Nigerian Navy in 2017.

As a result, the House urged the agric ministry, the Nigerian Navy and NIMASA to put measures in place to curb illegal fishing.

Director General of NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh who enlisted the additional support recently at a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Mahmood Abubakar.

The NIMASA boss described Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) as threats to the livelihood of legitimate fishing investors.

Jamoh also decried exposure of the marine environment to avoidable pollution through such unlawful activities.

The DG who also sought closer working relationship with the agricultural ministry, urged the minister to key into the Deep Blue project considering the array of benefits it holds for agricultural investors in the marine environment.

“We have been experiencing illegal fishing in our waters and the ministry assigned with the responsibility of issuing certificates of approval to conduct fishing especially in commercial quantities, is the Ministry of Agriculture.”

Expressing readiness to work with NIMASA, the Minister of Agriculture said, “We are aware of some of the issues concerning illegal fishing and already the ministry and department officials are doing something about that. I can assure the DG that we will get that put together soon.”