Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, including Angola, lose around 23.5 billion US dollars per year due to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
According to the SADC Regional Fisheries Monitoring, Control and Inspection Coordination Center, cited by Angop, despite the calculation of these values, the real economic losses of the respective fisheries are still difficult to estimate. Given this scenario, Angola, through the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, is attentive and involved in the effort to combat this evil, using new technologies from the Southern Region Monitoring Center.
In this regard, on the 20th of this month, Angola, in partnership with the Embassy of the United States of America, hosted the initial meeting of the SADC Atlântico project, which aimed to improve the quality of visualization of offenders. On the occasion, the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Carmen dos Santos, reaffirmed the Angolan Executive’s commitment to maintaining the sustainable management of the oceans, reinforcing the fight once morest illegal fishing. According to the government official, using new technologies from the Regional Center it will be possible to specifically understand where the offense is being committed in real time.
Meanwhile, the Regional Center states that illegal dr operators are driven by money, with the main points of concentration of their operations being the Indian and Atlantic oceans, which border Southern Africa. It also considers the effects of illegal fishing to be serious, particularly for coastal States that face several development challenges, in addition to accelerating the excessive exploitation of natural fishing resources.
Additionally, large-scale illegal fishing activity is often systematic, organized and transactional, being associated with other criminal actions, such as tax evasion, money laundering, drug trafficking, human trafficking, among other crimes. To stop this practice, the SADC institution calls for immediate action to protect ocean health, biodiversity and fisheries resources, as well as ensure that fisheries continue to provide food and nutrition, livelihoods and financial benefits to citizens of the region.
