(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Oman has barred three international fishing vessels from entering the Salalah port. The boats were suspected to have been involved in illegal unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Somalia.
The vessels claiming to have a Somali flag had turned off the mandatory technology that allows remote tracking and continued to operate in Somalia and used Salalah to land their fish. The vessels were earlier Korean flagged but exited the Korean registry after the country introduced precautionary measures.
Oman took the decisive step of closing its ports to the vessels that were headed towards Salalah to offload their catch after Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) an international non-profit organisation working to combat pirate fishing in West Africa informed authorities in Somalia and the sultanate of the illegal practice.
Somalia officials wrote to Oman that the vessels' supposed Somali flag was invalid and that another trawler Poseidon involved in IUU fishing and often using the Salalah port for offloading did not have licence to fish in the country.
The sultanate's decision comes as part of its obligation under Food and Agriculture Organization's Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) to which it is a signatory and was also one of the first countries in the Middle East to ratify the agreement. PSMA is a key international treaty to keep IUU fish from entering the market.
Praising Oman's measures Steve Trent executive director EJF said 'Oman has taken an important step. Closing markets to fish that is not demonstrably legal is a critical part of the international fight against IUU or 'pirate' fishing. By applying these port state measures Oman is helping legitimate fishers to protect the environment fish stocks and coastal communities along the Somali coast.'
Ahmed al Mazroui director general of fisheries resources development in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries told Muscat Daily that Oman was notified about the IUU fishing. 'The least we could do was stop the vessels from entering our ports. We are developing and promoting fishing around the country and therefore we want to establish strong measures to check any illegal fishing' he said.
He also added that the PSMA agreement is a framework to facilitate efforts to deter and eliminate IUU fishing and enhance cooperation between different countries in this regard.
According to EJF it was observed in 2014 that four vessels flagged to Korea were fishing in Somali waters close to the shore. The vessels named Ixthus 7 Ixthus 8 Ixthus 9 and Baek Yang 37 used port facilities in Salalah to periodically land their catch.
Investigations by EJF and Korea could not establish with certainty the legality of their activities. As a result in late 2014 Korea applied a precautionary approach to its fleet management barring its vessels from fishing in areas not governed by clear fisheries regulations. Korea also stopped certifying catch from these vessels meaning they were unable to legally send their product to the lucrative EU market.
As a result the vessels left the Korean registry claimed to change ownership and gave themselves new names (Haysimo 1 and 2 and Butilayo 1 and 2).
According to EFJ these vessels now claimed to have a Somali flag and turned off the mandatory technology that allows remote tracking and continued to operate in Somalia and use Salalah to land their fish. They were joined by two other trawlers including Poseidon that had also recently left the Korean registry.
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