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The ANTILLAS REEFER – a new Fisheries Patrol vessel for Mozambique
It was a special day, when on the 5th of July 2011, the ANTILLAS REEFER sailed into Maputo harbour painted red and white and bearing the name “Fiscalizacao Da Pesca” – Fisheries Patrol Vessel.
It is over three years since the arrest of the vessel, for illegally fishing shark in Mozambique waters, an arrest that eventually lead to the successful confiscation of the vessel, its cargo and the imposition of a fine for four million US dollars on the master and ships’ owners. The fine has yet to be paid, but Mozambique does not intend to give up, they are committed to take legal and diplomatic action to secure the payment.
Mozambique puts great emphasis into monitoring control and surveillance of the fishery resources, but up until now has had limited capacity to patrol the fishing grounds of the important tuna fishery. The fishery consists of foreign vessels that target yellow-fin, big-eye and albacore tuna. The fishery is valued at 30 million USD and generates roughly 3 million USD per year of much needed hard currency from sale of fishing licenses and the new patrol vessel ANTILLAS REEFER will prove a great asset for patrolling the off-shore fishing grounds. The story of the ANTILLAS REEFER is now infamous, and it demonstrates well the improved governance systems in Mozambique and how these are working in the fisheries sector.
The company that owned ANTILLAS REEFER in 2008 was Ompala Fishing Pty Ltd a joint venture between Mabenal SA, a Uruguayan company (100% subsidiary of Vidal Armadores SA) with headquarters in Spain and Gongala Fishing Pty Ltd, a Namibian company. Ompala Fishing, working through the Mozambican company Sabpal Pescas SA, applied to the Fisheries Administration (ADNAP) for a tuna fishing licence for the Antillas Reefer on 18 April 2008. While the application was being processed, on 23 June 2008, the Ministry of Fisheries received information from the fishing fleet that an unknown vessel, the ANTILLAS REEFER, had been identified fishing within Mozambican waters.
Recognizing the limited capacity to enter into a chase, but aware that the vessel was fishing illegally, the authorities requested the vessel representative to bring ANTILLAS REEFER into port for a pre-licence briefing. After some delay, the Namibian operators ordered the vessel to Maputo port. It arrived on the 5 July claiming engine problems had caused the delay. The patrol vessel escorted the vessel to anchor in the harbour, three days later it berthed at the jetty.
Fisheries inspectors performed an inspection of the vessel: the logbook revealed that the vessel had indeed been fishing in Mozambican waters for 50 days. The vessel had onboard; 43 tonnes of shark meat, 4 tonnes of shark fin, 1.8 tonnes of shark tail, 11.3 tonnes of shark liver, 20 tonnes of shark oil, 65 tonnes of bait and illegal fishing gear, including long lines of up to two kilometres in length. All indicating targeted kitefin shark fishing an illegal activity in Mozambique.
Following this, an inter-agency group was established to strategize on how to approach the case. The Ministry of Fisheries made inspections and transferred the fish products to freezer facilities. The Navy held the vessel in custody and controlled the movement of people and goods on and off the vessel. Immigration was tasked to grant the evacuation of the 37 crew members (excluding the master and the chief engineer) in order to ensure minimal costs and to reduce any interference.
An in-depth investigation revealed that electronic navigation records had been tampered with and records from telephone calls (mainly to Spain) had been deleted. It is suspected that these manipulations were made, either, during the delay into port in late June 2008 or while the vessel waited in harbour prior to docking. The master, a Spanish national, Francisco Fernandez Oliveira (whose master’s license had expired) initially understated the amount of shark catch onboard but later, as the evidence grew, admitted to the targeting of shark without a fishing license.
On 18 August 2008, a fine of four and a half million US dollars was imposed on the master and ships’ owners and the vessel was confiscated along with its contents (equipment, fishing gear and fish products). The penalty was appealed to the Administrative Tribunal the final ruling of the appeal was announced in August 2010, concluding the long process and ruling in favour of the Minister’s decision on the confiscation and a fine of four million US dollars.
Source: Image courtesy of Ministry of Fisheries Mozambique
For more information on the Antillas Reefer story, click here: Capture-of-the-Antillas-Reefer.jpg
