Monrovia – Fishermen of Fanti Town, in West Point, are calling on the Bureau of Fisheries to speedily investigate the deaths of eight of their colleagues who went missing at sea after a big ship ran into their small fishing canoe.
Report by Mae Azango, [email protected]
According to them only one survivor, who narrowly escaped death, was found unconscious in Sinoe County.
According to Kwahin, many a time, when they with smaller fishing boats are operating within their three nautical miles, bigger vessels, which should be behind this point, come within this zone intended for only artisanal fishing canoes sometimes leading to loss of lives and destruction of properties.
“November 2017, some of our friends were fishing in the three nautical miles when a ship ran through their canoe and killed at least three persons. We informed the Bureau of Fisheries so that investigations could be conducted but there has been no investigations done up till now,” disclosed Kwahin.
Outlining other cases, he narrated another instance when two of their friends narrowly escaped death by jumping out of their canoe into the ocean when a vessel came directly at them and hit their canoe. According to him, the most recent incident occurred in June of this year.
“A vessel called ‘Because of Jesus’ (BOJ) or GABU REEFER, fishing vessel nearly killed them. Noticing that the vessel which had no lights was coming directly at them, they jumped out of the canoe and had to swim for their lives,” Kwahin narrated.
In a complaint filed before the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority of Liberia (NaFAAL), copy of which is in possession of this newspaper, reads:
Dear Sir,
As by regulations, we were in the confines of our three nautical miles where we had thrown our nets at the hour of 5:00 a.m. local time, but while resting between 5:45-6:00 a.m. local time this vessel (GABU REEFER- IMO: 8300949, MMSI: 616852000, call sign: D6FJ2, Flag: Comoros {KM}, AIS vessel Type: Cargo, appeared from where we could not tell because their lights were off and started running through our nets.
We tried signaling using our lamps, but our lives were threatened by the speed at which the vessel was coming toward us and we had no option but to run. Hence, the vessel passed through our net and destroyed our boat.”
The communication is dated June 21, 2018.
Kwahin further stated that they are coming to the media now because authorities at NaFAAL have done nothing to look into their complaint highlighting the danger at sea for artisanal fishermen.
He disclosed that because of the risks now associated with being at sea, many of his colleagues are afraid to go on sea, thereby making those seamen’s families to go further into poverty.
“It is very risky at sea at the moment. Many young fishermen are refusing to go to sea due to fear of losing their lives. This is equally affecting the public because we are not bringing more fishes on shore,” he stated.
According to him, there are two groups of fishermen, who go to sea to fish.
“The first group goes to catch salmon fish (locally known as napleh) and other big fishes; they go on Monday and sleep at sea and return on Wednesday. The other group, which fishes for smaller fishes like herring (bunny), poor joe and gbarpleh, go daily.”
He also stated that the biggest canoe they use to fish costs at least US$25,000 and takes at most 35 persons, while a medium-sized canoe, too, with propelled by a machine, takes up to 20 persons, costs US$16,000. Smaller ones will cost between US$5,000 to US$8,000.
When contacted to comment on the complaints, Austin S. Wehye, NaFAA Director of Research and Statistics said even though they are responsible for the management of all fishing resources within the Economy Exclusive Zone (EEZ), which runs from 0-200 nautical mile, GABU REEFER vessel is not a fishing vessel, which makes it difficult for them to investigate, because they are only responsible for fishing vessels and artisanal fishermen.
“Regarding the ship GABU REEFER, we are looking into that, but to be very clear with you, this vessel is not a fishing vessel. We are only responsible for fishing vessels, but because the artisanal fishermen work with us and we regulate them, so we have the Department of Marine and Environment to probe into the case and come up with their findings,” Mr. Wehye stated.
According to him, they cannot stop industrial vessels from damaging artisanal fishing boats but they can mitigate, because there is always a conflict between fishing vessels and artisanal fishermen.
“Measures we have taken for our industrial and artisanal fishers is that we have reserved from zero to six nautical miles for artisanal fishermen to fish anywhere within this limit. We have industrial ships operating from six to 200 nautical miles,” he stated.
Mr. Solomon M. Daryoue, Director of Marine Fisheries and Environment, admitted that they received the communication regarding the GABU REEFER vessel and no information regarding fishermen dying at sea. He, however, stated that they are still investigating.
“We have not come across the information of people dying at sea because bigger vessel ran into them. All big vessels before entering our waters, they do entry and exit reports and give us notice. Most of the vessels have radial. We have warned our local fishermen to have lights on their fishing canoes to alert the industrial vessels but they are stubborn. Moreover, the bigger vessels have object detectors to know if there is an object ahead of them,” said Daryoue.
“We are investigating the issue and it takes time. We have to establish the fact as to where the industrial vessel and the artisanal fishing boat were situated at the time of the incident. We normally investigate and if our larger vessels are found liable, they pay for damages and we have done several cases of sort,” he disclosed without giving an instance.
He corroborated information what Wehye had provided earlier about the six nautical miles.
“What the management has done is to certify the six nautical miles exclusively for artisanal fisheries, for which if they go beyond, accidents are bound to take place. We can never abandon our local fishermen,” he promised
He clarified that even though former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had issued Executive Order 84, which reduced the six to three nautical miles, they didn’t go by that mandate.
“We never implemented that order, because it came with conditions. We became autonomous in October of 2017, so we were no longer under the Executive Order as an autonomous agency, for which we maintained the same six nautical miles.”