-NaFFA Boss terms Morrocan Research Vessel commissioning
By G Bennie Bravo Johnson I
Liberia’s National Fisheries and Aqua-culture Authority on Friday, January 26, 2024, joined dozens of its local and international partners for the commissioning of the Morrocan Research Vessel, R/V AL HASSAN AL-MARRAKCHW, at the Bong-Mines harbor on Bushrod Island, outside Monrovia.
The commissioning of the Research Vessel which was done by House Speaker J. Fonati Koffa, along with the Chief Justice of Liberia, Her Honor. Sie-A-Nyene YUOH marked a crucial step towards improving the sector’s scientific data and fostering socio-economic growth in the country.
Delivering an address at the ceremony, NaFAA’s Director General, Madam Emma Glasco disclosed that over the years, the fisheries sector has been challenged due to the lack of scientific data that are meant to improve the sector. She says the Commissioning of the vessel comes at a timely moment when Liberia is striving to industrialize its fishing sector.
Madam Glasco: “Ladies and Gentlemen, today marks a major achievement of a milestone as we endeavor to collect the requisite data of our marine resources and ensure the sustainable management of these valuable resources. Our efforts are to guarantee that everything counts including the taxonomy of the fish stock, the breeding ground, the biomass, habitat, and distribution of the stocks across our coastline. We see this process as an opportunity to connect the economic viability of the whole chain to human development, improve livelihood opportunity, and maintain healthy fish stock and catches that will support economic development and food security.”
As it was made known that the commissioning of the vessels is intended to gather data meant to inform the management of NaFAA on critical decision-making, Madam Glasco acknowledged the need for scientific data to drive this industrialization process and ensure that it benefits the population, similar to other countries in the region.
Disclosing the impact the absence of basic scientific data had over the years on Liberia’s fisheries sector, the Liberian Fisheries Director General indicated that the gap limited the country’s ability to engage in full industrial fishing. “This gap has limited our ability to engage in full industrial fishing. As we kick off this exercise today, I believe that we are a step away from going into full-scale commercialization, depending on the reports from research”.
Explaining more about the process of stock assessment, she pointed out that ‘it is an activity which seeks to collect information on the abundance and distribution of various kinds of fish species within a body of waters in terms of its commercial value and ecological importance.’ “This Fish Stock assessment exercise is basically an activity which seeks to collect information on the abundance and distribution of various kinds of fish species within our waters in terms of its commercial value and ecological importance.”
Moreover, Madam Glassco also described the commissioning and subsequent commencement of the fish stock assessment as a major achievement of a milestone as Liberia endeavors to collect the requisite data of marine resources and ensure the sustainable management of these valuable resources.
Director General Glasco historicized that NaFAA has been exploring means to open up the fisheries sector to its pre-war era. However, the key to jump-starting this was to acquire current and accurate scientific data on the stocks, to guide decision making.
She added that the authority was privileged in 2020, to have gotten support through the World Bank, the Liberia Sustainable Management of Fisheries project to finance the conduct of a comprehensive and independent stock assessment.
The female DG provided that the NAFAA also reached out to partners and neighboring countries including the Kingdom of Morocco through a regional fisheries body such as ATLAFCO, The Peoples Republic of China, Senegal as well as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO-UN) including other regional partners.
Madam Glasco: “However, all our efforts seemed to have hit the wall. Although, Liberia through NaFAA later signed an agreement with FAO to form part of the list of countries to undergo routine assessment; it was not as comprehensive or country’s specific as this detailed research activity that was to commence, however, it provided the basic information needed for precautionary fisheries management measures the NAFAA employed.”
Also during the ceremony, the Speaker of the 55th Legislature described the Liberian fisheries sector as a continuing and positive part of the economy.
Officially launching and commissioning the Moroccan state-of-the-art research vessel, Speaker Fonati Kofa noted that transitioning from artisanal fishing to industrialized and commercial fishing will economically benefit Liberia.
Speaker Kofa indicated that being able to take stock scientifically of what is contained in Liberia’s territorial waters and produce data to ensure the management of the resources is indeed a step forward for Liberia. He officially cut the ribbon to the state-of-the-art research vessel owned by the government of the Kingdom of Morocco. The vessel was officially commissioned to conduct a 14-day stock assessment across the nine coastal counties beginning with Grand Cape Mount on Friday, January 26, 2024.
Meanwhile, also making remarks during the commissioning ceremony, the Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, water and forest of Morocco disclosed that the King of the Kingdom of Morocco has called for the development of an integrated maritime economy to an extensive prospecting of offshore nature resources.
Minister Mohammed SADIKI said this integrated economy must be based on continual investment in the maritime fishing sector, as encouragement to the blue economy.
Liberia, a coastal state and a post-state is geographically advantaged with a coastline of 579km and has an enviable history of exporting shellfish such as shrimps, lobsters, and other high-value species during its pre-war era, precisely in the 1970s. Liberians were exporting these high-value species to international markets such as Japanese, American, and Asian markets.
Since the post-war era, the country’s fisheries sector has been characterized by subsistence and artisanal fishing activities which yield less returns to the country as compared to other fishing nations.
Liberia through the National Fisheries and Aqua-Cultural Authority on January 31, 2023, at the margins of the second session of the High-Level Conference for a scientific, economic, and environmental integration in favor of the Blue Belt Initiative by the Kingdom of Morrocco, signed an MOU with the Kingdom of Morocco through its Ministry of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forestry for cooperation and the conductivities of research.
The auspicious occasion marking the commissioning of the vessel was graced by three cabinet Ministers representing the Kingdom of Morroco. Amongst them were Hon. Mohammed Sidiki, Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, Water & Forestry, from Cote D’Ivoire, Hon.Tiemoko Toure, Minister of Fisheries & Animal Resources, and Hon. Charlotte Daffe, Minister of Fisheries & Maritime Economy of Guinea.
Also in attendance were the heads of regional fisheries bodies as well as international private partners, that included- the EU Ambassador H. E Nano Deprez), ECOWAS Ambassador Madam Josephine Nkrumah), FAO- United Nations Acting Country Representative to Liberia, Madam Bintia Stephen), World Bank Representative Mr. Shafick Hoosein, Task Team Leader-TTL of Liberia Fisheries Project, Secretary General of ATLAFCO- Ministerial Conference on Fisheries Cooperation among African States bordering the Atlantic Ocean Mr. Abdelouhed Bennabou and the President of the International Whaling Commission-IWC, Mr. Diallo Amadou Telivel.
