|
A GROUP of Danes are hoping they can persuade Somali pirates to abandon their hi-jacking of ships off the Horn of Africa by making them take up fishing instead.
Many fishing vessels from European countries have abandoned operations in that region because of constant raids by pirates which has seen a number of fishermen taken hostage. Some countries like Spain and France have put armed guards on their trawlers, but even that has not deterred the pirates.
By a strange twist the reduction in fishing has led to an increase in some fish stocks in that region which the Danish authorities believe can be exploited for everyone's mutual benefit.
Development Consultant Knud Vilby, one of the people behind the project, told the journal Politiken: “We know there’s money in it. Over the past decade, Tanzania has built up a veritable export boom in good edible fish from Lake Victoria. These are caught in the traditional manner from small dugouts and passed on to a filleting factory on land. Then flown to Europe in large Russian transport aircraft and sold as popular – and expensive – edible fish.”
The project organisers are due to investigate possible financing for the scheme after recently meeting representatives from Denmark’s Somalia Diaspora Organisation, the Refugee Council, the Foreign Ministry and the Shipowners’ Association, as well as the Defence Ministry.
Former Save the Children Fund employee Jakob Johansen told Politiken they plan to buy or lease a trawler from Denmark or the Faroe Islands. “We will try to copy the experience from Greenland in which local fishermen sail to a factory trawler and sell their fish.
“The factory trawlers have a production area with space for 120 local employees and freezing capacity of up to 30 containers which can be loaded on to a ship and exported to Europe, Asia or the Gulf where fish prices are much higher,” he added.
“The idea is that exporting the fish must be an attractive solution for the local fishermen in the project, so that cash in hand makes them choose fishing instead of piracy. At the same time you can demonstrate alternatives to piracy and the possibility of stability and growth,” Johansen said.
Should people be 'stimulated' to eat white fish alternatives to cod?
