Mozambique’s Minister of the Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries, Agostinho Mondlane, and his visiting counterpart from Madagascar, Gilbert François, want to sign bilateral agreements to combat illegal tuna fishing in their maritime waters, APA can report on Wednesday.

The two officials met late on Tuesday in the Mozambican capital, Maputo. “A Memorandum of Understanding will be signed soon with a view to implementing the understandings reached, within the framework of the talks begun between the two countries”, he told a media briefing late on Tuesday.

Madagascar’s Fisheries Minister said “satellite, radar and port inspections will be used to crack down on illegal fishing in the Indian Ocean, where tuna catches have reached the maximum sustainable limits”, Francois said, adding that
port inspections will play an increasingly major role in the crackdown, with authorities checking boats, documents and even cargo.
He continued: “Estimated to be about 10 to 15 percent of the region’s total catch, illegal and unreported fishing disrupts the tuna trade worth tens of millions of dollars every year”.
Navies in the region, often consisting of just one or two patrol vessels, struggle to intercept the hundreds of small boats, mainly from Taiwan and Indonesia, which spread out across the enormous ocean to catch the precious tuna.

Source: Journal du Cameroun