DHUSAMAREEB (Halbeeg News) – Galmudug state in central Somalia said Sunday that its naval forces have seized a Chinese-flagged fishing vessel off the coast of Somalia.
The state said in a statement that Galmudug will take stern measures against any violations of the law in the country’s territorial waters.
The foreign vessel was accused of catching fish and other marine resources in Somalia’s waters without the necessary legal documents and using fishing gears banned by the prevailing rules.
Galmudug state naval forces have seized a ship that was illegally sailing off the coast of Hobyo district in the Mudug region of Galmudug state. The vessel with its crews is in hands of Galmudug State authorities.
According to the statement, the Galmudug state navy sailed the ship its crew onboard to the port of Hobyo in the Mudug region, to take legal action against the vessel.
Last month, Somalia warned that the Horn of Africa country would no longer tolerate foreign vessels that come to its sea to illegally fish, cautioning that ships would be seized.
Somali Attorney General Suleiman Mohamed Mohamud said the government would roll out new measures to combat illegal fishing in its seas which leaves small fisher communities with poor yields as foreign nations and private companies exploit resources.
“Illegal fishing in Somalia is a national disaster and one of the biggest catastrophes to Somalia’s resources,” he said, noting that Somalia’s marine resources remain untapped.
A report by the Global Initiative against transnational organized crime in July said the waters off Somalia are some of the richest fishing grounds in the world and are still largely untapped.
It added that following the steady decline in attacks by Somali pirates since 2012, foreign fishing fleets have gradually returned to Somali waters.
Many vessels, particularly those originating in Iran, Yemen, and South East Asia, routinely engage in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing practices.
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