Angola, Namibia and South Africa launched a joint commission on Friday designed to lay the groundwork for a sustainable and environmental approach of their shared fishing grounds in the Atlantic Ocean.
”The Benguela Current Commission (BCC) is the first of its kind in the world,” said Namibia’s Fisheries Minister Abraham Iyambo at the opening of the new body in the Namibian capital Windhoek.
”Our countries now jointly tackle responsible fishing, management of shared fish stocks and environmental problems like pollution, and mitigation of impacts from marine diamond mining, oil and gas production,” Iyambo added. The BCC will also conduct scientific research on marine life.
The three countries agreed to establish the BCC at a meeting in Cape Town last August, with support and funding from the United Nations Development Programme, Germany and Norway.
It derives its name from the cold, but nutrient-rich Benguela current from the Antarctic flowing along the coast of the three countries. UNDP country coordinator Simon Nhongo said the UN’s Global Environment Facility would contribute around $5-million to set up a secretariat.
According to South Africa’s Environment and Tourism Affairs Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, marine fish resources worldwide are declining.
”We have to carefully manage our shared fish stocks in order to harvest them sustainably,” he said at the opening of the conference.
A recent study on the fishing sector along the Benguela current found that about 33 850 sea birds are killed each year by pelagic and demersal, that is, living at the bottom of the sea, longline fishing, 4 200 sea turtles and about 6,6-million sharks. – Sapa-AFP