NGO sounds alarm on illicit indiscriminate fishing in southern Moroccan waters

Moroccan southern maritime fish resources are increasingly endangered due to illicit and indiscriminate fishing.

Indiscriminate fishing consists of fisheries that do not focus on a particular species and will harvest most of the fish they catch, unlike species-selective fisheries.

The monitoring and counting of boats licensed to fish in the southern provinces revealed the intensification of the phenomenon of indiscriminate fishing in Morocco’s southern fishing waters, which significantly threatens the fish wealth.

The number of boats that do not respect the laws regulating fishing has reached about 1,000 boats in four fishing villages in the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab region, south of the Kingdom.

555 boats were counted in the “La Sarka” fishing center, 364 boats in “Luburidah”, 135 boats in the “Interfat” fishing center, and seven boats in the “Amtlan” fishing area.

The boats that were counted are divided into small professional fishing boats, dual-registration fishing boats, and boats of unknown ownership.

The Coalition for the Protection of Living Marine Resources, which had previously pointed out the risks fish resources face in the region, noted the intervention of the Maritime Fisheries Department, considering that the monitoring, auditing, and counting of licensed boats fall within the framework of Morocco’s exercise of its responsibilities in the field of preserving living resources.

A source from the coalition stated that the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests stopped octopus fishing on the coasts of Dakhla-Oued Eddahab a month and a half ago.

However, professional associations of fishermen considered that biological rest “is not a solution, after the National Institute for Research in Maritime Fisheries confirmed that the fish stocks in the area are close to depletion.”

The same source added that the limited inefficiency of biological rest in preserving fish wealth is due to the continuation of indiscriminate fishing boats operating during the mentioned period without controls.

These boats use means that drain fish eggs, which prevents it from growing and continuing the natural, ecological cycle of recreation.

According to the data obtained by Hespress AR, authorities in the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab region were afraid that preventing random fishing boats from fishing would lead to a protest by their owners, who say that they depend on the activity to make a living.

While the professionals say it is not the case, “because the quantities of fish these boats catch are beyond those needed for a standard living,” as they catch and sell considerable quantities that, if limited, will not affect the quality of life of the boat owners.

According to the same data, it was not the fishermen who created the problem of indiscriminate fishing, but rather large lobbies working in this field, where some investors own a hundred boats. Only a few of them are licensed, and the rest operate illegally.

The Coalition for the Protection of Living Marine Resources stressed, in a statement issued on Friday evening, that “the overfishing resulting from illegal fishing constitutes the greatest threat to the renewal of fish stocks, given that they are not infinite and can be exhausted.”

A Hespress AR source from the coalition stated that the number of random illicit fishing boats on the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab side exceeds the number that has been counted so far, noting that there are unlicensed boats whose owners circumvent the law by manipulating the numbering of licensed boats.

The same source added that the danger of indiscriminate fishing boats is not limited to the depletion of fish stocks, as it is also exploited in drug smuggling and illegal immigration to Europe, noting that the lobbies that benefit from the situation resort to hiding the boats until the monitoring campaign passes, to resume their activities again.