It could be recalled that in August last year, the Monitoring Control and Surveillance Unit at the Department of the Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources conducted a capacity building to strengthen the capacities of fisheries observers.
The training, funded through the European Union Sectoral Support Program, is aimed at strengthening sustainable management of fisheries resources and to develop Fisheries Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance of the country’s waters.
Anna Mbenga-Cham, director at the Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources, said the observers report to the Fisheries Department on the daily activities of the fishing vessels, has proven to be very important to the Department due to its inability to conduct at-sea inspections of all time.
"Good quality data can be collected by well-trained observers." She said.
He noted that the role of observers in the operations of industrial fishing vessels is internationally recognised, adding that it is a method being used by coastal states to prevent and stem the prevalence of Illegal, Regulated, and Unreported fishing.
She also revealed that the fishing vessel observers do not have the legislative authority to enforce fisheries regulations.
The authority, she added, is vested in the fisheries and naval officers and considered not to be compatible with the observer mandate, which is to observe, record and report.
