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Regional body calls for sustainable development, management of fisheries
Wednesday, 30 June 2010 00:31
The Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (SRFC) has called for more resources for the preservation of marine
biodiversity at the fifth forum of the regional forum for coastal and marine conservation programme for West Africa (PRCM) being held in Nouakchott from 28 to 30 June."The evolution of stocks in recent years is particularly alarming with chiefly the declining catches, the small size of fish caught, the depletion of some species in catches, etc.," the SRFC warned in a statement received Tuesday in Nouakchott.
It explained that the "exploitation of resources by the Marine Fisheries (50% of stocks in production limit, 25% overexploited) made the ecosystems most vulnerable by directly reducing the abundance and diversity of the population and species and indirectly by destroying their habitats."
This "is mainly due to over-fishing and the degradation of the marine ecosystem by chemical and organic pollutants (hydrocarbons, discharges of urban waste directly into the sea)," the statement said.
According to the PRSP, it "is no workable national solution to the phenomenon and only a concerted response at regional level would be appropriate and relevant, especially as the degradation affects more and more migratory and shared stocks."
Created on March 29, 1985, the PRSP which is headquartered in Dakar is an institution of fisheries cooperation which includes seven member countries : Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
It recalled in its statement that the coast of Africa from Morocco to South Africa, are part of the world’s richest fishing resources, stressing that "in the SRFC states marine eco-region fisheries provide protein food, jobs, substantial income to millions of people and is an important source of foreign exchange for states.”
PRSP said the depletion of fish stocks in other seas and sustained growth in demand for fisheries products make more industrialized countries to move their fleets to the coast of West Africa.
Noting that most countries in West Africa have signed fishing agreements with the European Union and Asian countries, the Commission stated that "illegal fishing is also a recurrent phenomenon.”
"With the many boats plying the coast and making extremely important catches, there is a real looting of fishery resources in these countries," it said.
Source: APA
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