Tag: fishing

Police release suspects in human trafficking case

Police have released suspects arrested for their alleged involvement in the human trafficking network that exposed last month, Haveeru reports, after the Criminal Court found no grounds to detain them.

The number of suspects released is unknown.

Five Maldivians and 12 expatriates were previously arrested for their alleged roles in the human trafficking network, said to worth up to US$123 million. The ring reportedly to forged over 70 local investments using copies of national identity cards belonging to individuals who were uninformed or deceased.

None of the suspects released today were expatriates involved in that particular case, Haveeru News reports.

Minivan News earlier reported that human trafficking has replaced the fishing industry as the Maldivian economy’s second greatest contributor of foreign currency.


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No maritime agreement, confirms Sri Lankan High Commission

The Sri Lankan High Commission has refuted the existence of a special agreement allowing Sri Lankan vessels to cross Maldivian territorial waters.

News of such an agreement was published last week in Maldivian media after Sri Lanka’s Deputy External Minister Neomal Perera was quoted in Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror newspaper as saying such an agreement had been signed.

In the Maldives, Fisheries Minister Dr Ibrahim Didi and Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem denied such an agreement existed, while the President’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair said foreign vessels already had such permission under the UN Convention on Law of the Sea.

The opposition Dhivehi Rayithunge Party (DRP) denounced the supposed agreement as an assault on soverignity and “an insult to Maldivian fishermen”, questioning the capacity of the country to monitor illegal fishing, while Maldivian Democratic Party Chairperson ‘Reeko’ Moosa retaliated by saying such a statement was “very irresponsible” as it implied Sri Lanka were “thieves”.

The matter entered parliament and MDP MP Mohamed Musthafa threatened to present a motion without notice to reverse the supposed agreement.

However in a letter sent to the Maldives Foreign Ministry seen by Minivan News, referring to articles on the matter published in local newspapers Haveeru and Miadhu, the Sri Lankan High Commission stated that “The Deputy Minister of External Affairs of Sri Lanka has made no statement claiming that a maritime agreement to facilitate Sri Lankan vessels to cross Maldivian territorial waters has been signed between the two countries. This is the official position of the Government of Sri Lanka.”

Attached to the letter was the original statement from Sri Lanka’s External Ministry, reporting that the minister had successfully negotiated the release of seven Sri Lankan vessels held by the Maldives on suspicion of poaching, but made no mention of a signed agreement to allow vessels traffic through the Maldives.

The Ministry of Fisheries meanwhile noted that while “innocent passage” was routinely granted for foreign vessels, unlicensed foreign fishing vessels were required to notify the ministry before entering the Maldives exclusive economic zone.

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Sri Lankan fishing vessels allowed to cross Maldivian waters

A new agreement between the Maldives and Sri Lanka will allow Sri Lankan fishing vessels to cross Maldivian territorial waters enroute to the Arabian Sea, Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror reported.

The fishermen have been taking a detour to avoid entering Maldivian waters, but the new agreement will allow them through passage with advance notice given to the Sri Lankan diplomatic authorities in the Maldives.

Vessels found poaching in Maldivian waters would be prosecuted, Sri Lanka’s Ministry of External Affairs was reported as stating in the Mirror.

The Maldives has also released seven Sri Lankan trawlers taken into custody on suspection of poaching in Maldivian waters.

Local news outlet Sun Online meanwhile reported the head of the DRP’s fishermen’s branch Ali Solih as saying that the deal was “an insult to Maldivian fisherman” and “a dangerous deal”, as the Maldives did not have the capacity to monitor illegal fishing.

The Mirror also reported that Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Neomal Perera had arranged for the repatriation of a Sri Lankan woman accused of killing her husband, after she attempted suicide while in custody.

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President launches high-tech fishing boat for “easier fishing experience”

President Mohamed Nasheed yesterday launched a high-tech fishing boat equipped with a fish finder system, a built-in ice plant and a water plant.

The new fishing vessel “Laamaseelu”, built by Precision Marine and the 14th belonging to Ibrahim Ali Koi from the island of Kan’dholhudhoo in Raa Atoll, would provide “an easier fishing experience”, the President’s office stated.

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Australians have “primitive phobia” of sharks and “19th century idea of the ocean”: Tim Winton

“We have this 19th century idea of the ocean; we still have this idea that the ocean can absorb the punishment that we dish out,” says award-winning Australian writer Tim Winton. “We think we can just keep putting a few hooks in and we’ll pull something out.”

“People have begun to understand that the great fish like tuna and the marlins and the swordfish are in massive decline … but people don’t realise that sharks are among that cohort. In fact, sharks are really more threatened than whales or dolphins,” he says.

“I’m asking people to be conscious of the kind of footprint that we leave… It’d be a sad thing to bequeath to our children an empty, acidic ocean.”

Read more

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Fisheries fund to lure shark fishermen to alternative livelihoods

A fund to help shark fishermen find alternative livelihoods has been launched by the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture on World Ocean’s Day, June 8th.

The fund was inaugurated less than a month before a total ban on shark fishing and export of shark products comes into effect on July 1.

The ministry had originally deferred the ban, citing the need to facilitate alternative livelihoods for the 200-odd shark fishermen and middlemen involved in the industry.

Money for the fund

“As we had not pre-planned for this ban, we hadn’t included it in our budget,” said Hussain Sinan, Senior Research Officer at the ministry.

Sinan said the urgent need to declare a total ban arose following a report from the Marine Research Center (MRC), which noted that the number of reef sharks sighted by divers had declined in recent years, that shark stocks were and vulnerable to exploitation due to their slow growth, late maturity and low fecundity.

“We had one year to prepare for this ban, and so we had discussed this with the fishermen involved,” says Sinan.

The ministry plans to raise money to fund the ban through NGOs and the tourism sector.

“The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has promised US$300,000 and some resorts have also pledged money,” he said, but declined to name those involved.

Influential lobby group the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI) meanwhile said it is not aware of any resorts contributing to the fund. MATI’s Secretary General ‘Sim’ Mohamed Ibrahim says the group has heard of the fund but had not been approached by the ministry.

“Resorts might have been approached directly,” Sim speculated.

The fund to support an alternative livelihood for shark fishermen was a good idea, he suggested.

“We lobbied for a shark fishing ban five years ago, after which a moratorium was placed by the government banning shark fishing in areas close to the resorts.”

A study carried out in 1992 revealed that tourists paid a total of US$ 2.3 million for shark watching dives, while in the same year export of shark products earned a revenue of US$0.7 million.

“If they come to us and say this issue needs to be addressed, we will help of course,” Sim said, but maintained that MATI could only talk to resorts “as on financial issues [such as this] resorts will decide how they spend their money.”

Funding alternative livelihoods

“Shark fishing is not a year long activity, it lasts for about five months” Sinan explained, therefore fishermen already practiced another form of livelihood for the rest of the year like “reef fishing and yellowfin tuna fishing.”

The funds are going to be spent on training opportunities for fishermen, agricultural projects and to boost the “secondary livelihoods” of shark fishermen, he stated.

“It will not be distributed directly to fishermen,” he added. Already the ministry has received requests from islands to help them find markets to sell reef fish and help them to keep fish fresh for longer.

Fourteen islands to receive the fund have already been identified by the ministry.

“We are also floating the idea of buying back long line fishing gear from the fishermen – this way we can identify those involved also,” he said.

Each dhoni would be assessed separately, and owners compensated “taking into account the current market value and depreciation.”

Implementation

Fisherman’s Union’s President Ibrahim Manik says the ministry has made no contact with the body.

Agreeing that sharks needed protection, he said the issue of compensating the shark fishermen was crucial.

He is supportive of how the money will be spent: “everyone wants money, but a one-off payment is not going to reap positive results in the long run.”

“Even if we were not included in the discussion stage, what the Fisheries Minister is saying is a good thing; the funds need to be spent in a sustainable manner,” Manik said.

However he points out the contradictory nature of announcing a shark ban while on the path to introducing long line.

“Let’s face it: sharks are going to be caught with long lining, and a lot of them are going to die,” Manik said.

Long lining was necessary if local fishermen were to survive, he said.

“Fishermen need to survive and right now we are suffering,” he said, adding that a lot of fishermen were questioning the logic of the ban.

“According to some estimates, there are about 300 Sri Lankan fishing boats that do long lining near the Maldives. They are killing sharks by the dozens, so does having a ban only in the Maldives help? We have no idea how they are going to implement this, but we support the move.”

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Comment: Premium Fair Trade tuna in the Maldives is a sure bet

In the Alchemist, Paulo Coelho’s young hero, a shepherd, travels great distances in search of a treasure only to find at the end of his adventures that the treasure he seeks is in the very spot where he began.

I am reminded of this parable in considering the Maldives and their fisheries. There you are surrounded by pristine seas, a people moulded by the rhythm of the seas, fed by its bounty over hundreds of years – with amazingly the most sustainable method of tuna fishing in the world.

It is not just sustainable in fishing terms but more importantly in terms of the communities that fish – widely inclusive, fundamentally democratic – this is a treasure buried beneath the sands of your lovely islands.

The problem is that nobody is prepared to pay you properly for this sustainable method. They want to pay you the lowest price possible, determined by an unthinking international market that will never pay the real cost price.

So in line with this situation, more and more voices in the Maldives are urging for the fisheries to become more industrial and supposedly more efficient or modern – bigger boats, purse-seine nets and long lines, all fishing methods that sustainability experts denounce as damaging. This, in a state that wants to be carbon neutral in 10 years time and sells itself to tourists on the basis of discerning luxury and quality!

This at a time when consumers in your big tuna export markets are finally being informed about the true cost of unsustainable fishing – causing quite a stir as well as a hurried rush by major companies and major tuna buyers to start greening their supply base!

The Maldives should be jumping at the chance to now show the world how advanced it is with its ‘backwards’ traditional fishing methods. Marine experts the world over, including Dr Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia, are openly stating that artisan fisheries are the only sustainable future – not just ecologically but even financially because they do not depend on cheap oil and endless subsidy.

The action plan in the Maldives should be to advertise how different your fishing is and work out a way to get a decent return or premium as against the global tuna market price. (It should also be – in line with reducing costs and moving to a zero carbon economy – looking at ways to reduce the fuel usage involved in the Maldives fishing fleet).

So now is the ideal time to start getting the premium you deserve for your tuna. But we’re back to the original problem – markets won’t pay the correct price and it’s almost impossible to get them to do that.

I say almost: the Maldives is in the best possible place right now to start doing this – but nothing happens without a fight. First you need to value the treasure buried beneath your feet: it’s your skills, your knowledge and your history. You don’t need expensive foreign expertise or newfangled infrastructure investment – you’re basically up to speed.

Second you need to outwit the markets. And to do that there is a tool – it is called Fair Trade.

It’s a proven tool – it’s worked time and time again, with producers of primary commodities all around the world. The whole of the Maldives tuna catch could be sold at a definite and fixed premium that is both above the global tuna price and above the cost of operating.

That’s my vision. I’ve done the maths and there’s enough latent demand in fair trade for this to happen right now in the present. Be warned fair trade is no a charity system; it’s an alternative way of trading. If anything it’s how the future of trade should look. Also it’s not a done deal – it will take time.

What’s in it for me? I’m sitting here in an office in the UK. It’s not my sea, it’s not my history – it’s not my resource. But I am totally embedded in the ethical and sustainable business field here in the UK and know from the inside how real ethical alternatives have broken the mould.

I guess I would hope to get some PR for my company and products but my real incentive is campaign-like: it would be wonderful to outwit the whole big company/supermarketing system that dominates the tuna trade and to establish precedent for other artisan fisheries worldwide.

This is what’s at stake. The end buyer, the supermarkets and brands, would not change, nor would the commercial logic of how they buy and sell their tuna. The thing that would change is that the producer at the bottom of the chain would get a fair price – guaranteed.

Fair Trade is about producers co-operating as a co-operative, it’s about a community of people and it’s about business or trade too. A Maldives Fair Trade tuna project can start at a very small scale. It does not need big investment – just the correct organisation structure at the producer level and a Fair Trade approved category (fish products are not yet authorised), audit process and traceability system.

This is not an all-or-nothing gamble. Fair Trade producers can sell also on ordinary market terms. Normally as the market develops more is sold under the fair trade system, and of course the bigger the customer base, the bigger the sale.

What is really needed at this point is an enthusiastic, forward-looking entrepreneurial Maldives fishing producer group that is ready to make it happen! I’m wondering if there’s anybody out there with a spade and a lot of vision?

Charles Redfern is founder of the ethical food company Organico Realfoods and launched the Fish4Ever brand 10 years ago. Fish4Ever is a pioneer brand for sustainability in canned fish and has been the forefront of the recent debate on sustainable fishing in the UK. He can be contacted at [email protected].

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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Short tempers over long lining

One of the most influential and pioneering shark and marine conservation organisations, Bite Back, has said a UK boycott of long line tuna from the Maldives is a real possibility unless the Maldivian government disallows long line fishing in Maldivian waters.

Bite Back, which works to promote sustainable fishing and halt the trade and consumption of vulnerable fish species to protect ocean habitats, has expressed alarm at the proposed long line fishing in Maldives.

Graham Buckingham, campaign director of Bite Back, says that seafood is a hot ecological topic, with consumers demanding that fish are caught sustainably and with the minimum of by-catch.

“As such, a UK boycott on long line-caught tuna from the Maldives is a real possibility that, of course, could be avoided by the government outlawing longline fishing in Maldivian waters in the first place,” he said.

Marks & Spencer, a global retail giant, and one of the major buyers of Maldivian tuna, announced last year it would no longer buy tuna that is not caught by pole and line.

Talking to the press last year, an M&S spokeswoman said: “As all of our food is own-brand, it means there will be absolutely no products in our stores that use tuna which isn’t pole or line caught.”

Minivan News has learnt that M&S buyers visited the Maldives recently and held talks with local environmentalists to ensure that all tuna in the Maldives were caught using pole and line.

The dilemma

The steady decline in fish catch has lead the Maldivian government in proposing long line as an alternative method of fishing alongside the more traditional and environmentally friendly pole and line.

President Mohamed Nasheed in his opening address to the Majlis appealed to fishermen to find new methods of fishing saying “Those massive fishing vessels that we built yesterday, that are now anchored in the lagoons as they are not suitable for pole and line fishing, are causing us immense loss.”

Nasheed went on to say that it’s not feasible to burn fuel and engage in pole and line fishing in big vessels, and experts had advised him it would be more profitable to use those vessels for group long-line fishing.

The Ministry of Fisheries is now poised to provide financial and technical support to fishermen to adopt this new method. The president urged the fishermen “to take to the seas again.”

The president also announced that licenses for foreign boats that had been catching fish using long line and net in the Maldives would be cancelled in April and Maldivian boats would take their place.

Ibrahim Manik, chairman of the fishermen’s union says “around 80 per cent of fishermen are against this new method, but the dire situation means there will be those who will adopt this.”

He says at least Maldivian fishermen will be more careful about the ecological impact.

“Even now our fishermen will release any sharks they catch by mistake, so if our people do long lining they will be more careful.”

Interestingly enough in 2008 the same union sent a letter urging the then fisheries minister to stop boats using long line methods in Maldives waters on ecological grounds.

“Even now we are saying don’t give permission for long lining, but on the other hand the fact that fishermen can’t make ends meet anymore means that there will be those who will do this for the money.

He admits that longline has negative effects on dolphin and sharks and says readily that ‘the reputation we had built over the years will be destroyed.”

Organisations like Green Peace which had urged last year for people to buy Maldivian fish would no longer be doing that, says Ibrahim.

“Money is the big factor here. A fishing boat used to earn around 10,000 Rf to 20,000 Rf per trip before, and now we have exporters also who are encouraging this.”

But even private exporters like Big Fish are worried. The company’s director Ali Riza says “long line is completely contradictory to how we fish now; Maldives Seafood Processor and Exporters Association (MSPEA) are even now debating the pros and cons of it.”

According to Ali, UK supermarkets are supposed to have certified sustainable products on their shelf in the year 2010, and this complicates everything.

“Europe is our biggest market right now and we are even now planning to participate and promote our product as one caught by sustainable fisheries in the biggest fish export fair in Belgium this year.

However he says the fact that ‘a lot of companies are now on the verge of bankruptcy’, which is also cause for concern.

No concessions

Ali says right now one can only hypothize about how European consumers will react but says he finds all the talk a bit hypocritical also.

“it’s not us that overfished the waters, but now that it’s done, we are being told not to do what western countries had been doing.”

And like Ibrahim who evoked the idea of foreign boats doing long lining, Ali says “we obviously can’t seal off our waters – fish are migratory. If we don’t do it others will overfish around us, so we might as well be the ones doing it.”

He expresses hope that there will be minimal negative impact, as they are not targeting sharks and other species, and says there will not be a “significant amount” of by-catch.

Activists like Graham say long lining causes the unintentional death of 80,000 turtles a year along with countless sharks, dolphins, sailfish and seabirds worldwide, calling it one of the most indiscriminate methods of fishing.

Major exporters like MIFCO who last year exported 115,580 cases of canned tuna, 21,008 tons of frozen tuna and 312 tons of fresh yellow fin seem to think that the shift in fishing methods would not cause a major problem.

“We will also apply for long line license when they start giving it,” says Ali Faiz, Managing director of MIFCO. He says as the customers are different for long line and canned tuna, it would not have much of an impact.

“With long lining we mostly export raw fish.”

He also scoffs at the environmental concerns, saying a lot of the time environmentalists are controlled by big businesses. “All these days’ foreign boats were doing it, and having an advantage over us. Now it will be more difficult for boats to come here and steal from us.”

He is confident that there will always be buyers for Maldivian fish.

Ali says those who support the environment friendly method of fishing in Maldives, do not give any incentive for it to be continued. “We have an entire country that is fishing with pole and line, but do we get any special concessions, any benefits because we do it?”

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Story of three decomposing corpses remains a mystery, say police

Three dead bodies have mysteriously washed up on Maldivian shores in under a month, and police still confess they have no idea who they are.

The first body was found in the lagoon of of the Reethi Rah resort on 15 January, floating three to four feet off the shore. A resort worker told Minivan News the badly decomposed body was discovered by a beach cleaner at 8:30 am in morning, and was collected by a police forensic team that arrived at 12:30 pm that afternoon.

Another body was found near the island of Mahibadhoo in north Ari atoll on 21 January. Police said the body, also badly decomposed, was discovered by a fishing boat. Police took the body for investigation.

The third body was found on a sand bank near the Taj Exotica resorts in Male atoll by staff on a diving expedition.

Police inspector Ahmed Shiyam said that because the bodies were so badly decomposed it was proving very difficult to identify who they are.

”It shows that they have been dead for a long time,” he said.

Shiyam said that the bodies found near Reethi Rah and Taj Exotica were male, while the body found near Mahibadhoo could not be identified as either gender. Neither could the nationalities of the bodies be recognised, he said.

DNA had been taken for analysis, he said, and explained that police were now trying to discover whether any of the bodies were of people reported missing from fishing boats.

”None of [the bodies] have yet matched to the family members of the people who have been reported lost,” he said.

The investigation continues.

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