(ERGO) – Local fishermen along Somalia’s northern coastline are complaining of being forced out of work by attacks from foreign boats that are not being policed by the authorities.
Mohamed Mohamud has been struggling to support his wife and nine children in Alula, Bari region. With no other skills to earn a living, he now spends his time at home with his children, missing the $30 a day he used to make from fish sales.
He stopped fishing on 15 August after being attacked by a foreign trawler. He and his two fishing partners lost their fishing nets and other gear worth a total of $1,900. He doesn’t know how he can recover those losses.
“The people in this area depend on nothing else but fishing, and we are facing very poor economic conditions now as our fish have been depleted and there is nothing left in the area,” he said.
Mohamed, a fisherman for 12 years, has taken $450 in loans from businessmen in Alula since August and has no means to repay.
“We lost our boat and all the fuel. We are unable to pay our rent because of the lack of income. We don’t have the capacity to deal with these foreign vessels and the government is doing nothing,” he said.
Mohamud Salah Osman, 65, in Lasqoray, Sanag region, was also forced to quit fishing fearing for his safety. This father of 10 used to fish using nets near the shore. He was attacked by the crew on a foreign boat that snatched away his fishing nets that cost him $1,500.
To make ends meet for his family, he sometimes hires a boat and nets hoping to make a catch to pay the rent and earn some profit. But he says he has even been fired at by foreign boats and it’s become risky.
“Sometimes I go to sea and don’t catch anything. Our families have been affected financially, if we don’t get fish we might not cook anything at home since it is our source of income and our livelihood,” he said.
He and his family are living on 10 kilograms of flour, rice and sugar given by relatives on 5 September. With no savings his future looks bleak.
The foreign boats have also over-fished in the area, catching even the small fish that should be left to grow. Mohamed, with 20 years as a fisherman, said their catch-all method of fishing risks wiping out the marine ecosystem.
“There has been a drop in the number of fish over the past three years, and I think it is because these fishing vessels have affected the fish ecosystem where they raise young fish. They catch everything in the sea and move off to islands offshore,” he said.
The commissioner of Lasqoray district, Abdikarin Yusuf Jama, said his administration is trying to deal with the unregulated fishing boats in the area with the help of Puntland Ministry of Fisheries. However, he admits they do not have the capacity to control these boats.
“We are planning on how we can deal with them. We have sent warnings to these trawlers to stop attacking local fishermen and to move back from the coastline,” he said.
He said they cannot estimate the total financial losses incurred by local fishermen. He noted that illegal boats mixed in with other fishing vessels that were licensed by the Puntland administration and were thus hard to isolate. He called on the ministry to improve the regulation of licensing and to deal with the bandits.
