The House of Representatives, has called for an end to illegal fishing activities on Nigeria’s waters by foreign vessels.
To this end, the House in a resolution on Wednesday, urged the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, the Nigerian Navy, and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to put measures in place to curb illegal activities.
While also urging the Federal Government to review its licensing policy that tends to favour foreign trawlers at the expense of their local counterparts and encourage indigenous investments into this agricultural sector, the House has called on the government, to prevail on the Gulf of Guinea Commission to urgently introduce a legally binding framework to check excessive fishing or overfishing in the region.
This was sequel to a motion on the matter, sponsored by Hon. Patrick Ifon, lamenting that Nigeria is the 4th largest importer of fish in the world with about 2 million metric tons per annum, for an estimated population of over 200 million people, while the country “loses a whopping sum of 70 million (USD) annually to Chinese and other European Trawlers due to illegal fishing activities in the nations waters as observed by the Nigerian Navy in 2017”.
According to the lawmaker, despite Nigeria non-fishing agreement and arrangements with distant nations such
as China and the European Union, illegal fishing on Nigeria’s waters persists due to bilateral agreements with the nearby Country of Sao Tome and Principe.
He told the House that the Overseas Development Institute’s Report of 2018 that illegal fishing boats from China, Netherlands and Spain operating in the Country’s territorial waters commonly transfer catches from their trawlers into container and cargo vessels on the high seas, thereby flouting quota regulations.
“The Gulf of Guinea Commission which was established in 2001 to check issues bordering on fisheries beyond 20 nautical miles of each member nation is yet to come up with a legally binding framework to tackle illegal fishing activities”, he lamented.
