Reporting of CatchesLandings MCS and Enforcement Systems

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7.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

The following recommendations are based on the results of this survey. Many are echoed in the Policy and Advocacy papers produced by the same team of consultants.

7.1 Reporting of CatchesLandings

Somalia federal and state fisheries authorities should work closely with the FAO and other development partners to establish a proper data and information system for reporting landings of small-scale fleets and commercial and industrial sectors, including any foreign fishing or joint ventures. With the high prevalence of cell phones, innovative and low cost systems for fishermen to self-report could be developed, if coupled with incentives for reporting and auditing to ensure the reports accuracy. An in-depth study of at-sea fish sales in Puntland should be done with the aim of understanding advantages of this practice for Somali fishermen and ways to report such landings even without coming to a fish landing site. That almost all fishermen have cell phones provides opportunities for some or all to self-report the volume of catches sold at sea via SMS texts to fisheries authorities, or via a smart app with occasional at sea auditing by fisheries inspectors to keep them relatively honest in their reporting and assuring them that the data would not be linked to any taxation or landing fee system. If this practice at-sea sales benefits Puntland fishermen economically, and catch volumes could be accurately assessed, banning such practice-perhaps a common policy option-should not be considered.

7.2 MCS and Enforcement Systems

• The entire federal and state MCS system needs to be looked at closely, and to have its priorities developed. This includes the registration and licensing of domestic, as well as foreign fishing vessels and fishermen. Somaliland seems to be leading other states in developing a registration program for vessels and a previously mentioned report showed that the registration of fishermen in Puntland is underway. This program is a model and should be expanded coast wide. ● Fisheries enforcement needs more involvement of fishermen, particularly in community-based surveillance and reporting. This could be accomplished in part by using SMS and cell phone technologies to report infractions, and via community radio call-ins. ● Somali states should explore ways of coordinating and cooperating with foreign navies to obtain information on IUU fishing in Somalia’s EEZ. It is doubtful whether these foreign navies would want to make actual apprehensions, but that could be a topic of discussion if Somali enforcement officers were placed on board and made official arrests instead of foreign navy personnel. Even if foreign navies provide Somali authorities better information about foreign fishing locations, without being able to apprehend and arrest violators at sea, the information will still not be acted upon nor serve as much of a deterrent. 85 ● State security agencies should have equipment, including patrol boats, vehicles, radio communication, aerial survey or coordination with air force or police, etc. to effectively survey the coastline and enforce the law. ● MSC methods and effective enforcement mechanisms should be adopted, including training fishing officers observers to accompany industrial fishing vessels-domestic and foreign-to ensure these vessels real-tim e catch submissions, effort data and payment of revenues. ● Computer-based, satellite-aided surveillance and survey activities, including the use of Vessel Monitoring Systems VMS, real-time data and revenue collection system should be established nationwide. Information should then be sent to a central processing and analysis center.

7.3 Fisheries Regulatory Regimes and Administration