Eurpean Fishermen fear to fish off Somali coast. Take a loss this year

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

Scotsman - Tuna catches in the southwestern Indian Ocean fell by as much as 30 per cent last year as pirates blocked access to some of the world's richest waters, off Somalia, fisheries experts have said.

 

European fleets say the Somali pirates, who are better known for their hijackings of commercial vessels including the Saudi supertanker, Sirius Star, threaten an industry worth up to £4.3 billion across the Indian Ocean region.

 

France and Spain, which both base fleets in the Seychelles, would expect to haul in nearly two-thirds of the year's catch off Somalia between August and November, Alejandro Anganuzzi, head of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, said.

 

"Instead they had to look further east and probably caught 50 per cent of what they would usually catch," he said.

 

Some 50 trawlers use the capital Victoria's port, through which up to 350,000 tonnes of tuna are handled each year.

 

Somalia has said piracy was merely a symptom of rampant illegal fishing by vessels from Europe and Asia in its waters after the country's central government collapsed in 1991.

 

Pirates attacked tuna boats at least three times last year, leading to one ransom of more than £725,000.

[RedSea]

wow. These people make no secret whatsoever in stealing other people's resources. Take more trawlers as hostages more often. That is justified.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

Somali coast is gold. It is interesting the European fishing companies have a whole fleet in Seychelles where they coordinate their fishing activity off the Somali coast.

 

Naxdin ma jirto. They will grab whatever they can inside our 200 mile area or just outside Somali territorial waters.

 

A while back, Canada took action against some of these Europeans

[NASSIR]

^Our coast is a major economic resource for the nation and country. Sadly we are ignorant about this near limitless value. I felt long time ago that Pirates were a blessing in disguise.

For 18 years, they' ve been serving our stolen fish in London and Paris restaurants.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

Johann Hari[/b]

Columnist, London Independent

Posted January 4, 200908:53 PM (EST)

 

Illegal Fishing: "At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish-stocks by over-exploitation - and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m worth of tuna, shrimp, lobster and other sea-life is being stolen every year by vast trawlers illegally sailing into Somalia's unprotected seas. The local fishermen have suddenly lost their livelihoods, and they are starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: "If nothing is done, there soon won't be much fish left in our coastal waters."

 

Toxic Waste Dumping: Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury - you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. When I asked Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention."

 

Source: Huffpo

[Grant]

The Seychelles are at the same latitude as Kenya and Tanzania and the nearest island is roughly a thousand miles southeast of Ras Kamboni.

 

The blue line on this map indicates the extent of Somalia's territorial waters:

 

http://mappery.com/map-name/Somali-Pirate-Attacks- Map-as-of-Dec-12-2007