Liberia: Government Arrest Illegal Fishing Ship

A Marine Control and Surveillance Project, jointly launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Bureau of National Fisheries aimed at preventing ships from engaging in illegal fishing in Liberian territorial waters, over the weekend yielded fruits with the arrest and subsequent detention of SATA 70 and its crew who were engaged in illegal fishing. The arrest was made by the MV Rockfish, a ship operated by a private sector company called the Marine Protection and Rescue Services Limited which is the company that has been hired by the Liberian government to conduct a marine control and surveillance project off the coast of Liberia for a sixty day period. The ship was seized with 1,000 cartons of fish on board. Minister Toe of the Liberian Government used the occasion to warn that the government will not tolerate any violation of the law when it comes to illegal fishing on Liberian territorial waters, stressing that government was losing at least $12 million annually from illegal fishing. For her part, Deputy Finance Minister, Elfrieda Steward Tamba who spoke on the fine to be paid by the ship, said the ministry is in the process of estimating and from what is expected to be gathered, the cost would be between three hundred thousand plus United States dollars. She said the fish would be auctioned should the crew members of the ship fail to pay the fine, because the law provides that government can seize and auction in such a case stressing that anything to the contrary, the ministry would proceed to do just that after a one month period. allafrica.com