By Augustine Octavius
The National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority has unveiled plans aimed at increasing its contribution of the fishing sector to the national budget from US$3.15 million in three years.
The newly appointed Director General of the authority, Emma Metieh-Glassco, said as a part of the plans, the institution will close what she termed as loop holes and re-claim some of the intake through legislation from the Liberia Maritime Authority and the National Port Authority.
Speaking in an exclusive interview in Monrovia, Mrs. Glassco added that the fisheries authority also plan to dredge its fishing pear purposely to enable fishing vessels to dock and pay all relevant taxes through the authority.
She added that it will need about US$700,000 to dredge the fishing dock of Montserrado on the Bushrod Island and assistance will be sought from both the government and international partners.
Within my tenure, she explained that twenty percent of fish caught by industrial vessels will be sold on the Liberian market in order to reduce the price of fish, canning of fish and providing more jobs for our people once they are docking at the Montserrado fishing dock
Madam Glassco also maintained that the authority will work with the Liberia National Coast Guard to halt the sale of fish caught in Liberian territorial waters not to be sold on the high sea and brought purposely to increase fish on the Liberian market.
The Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority boss explained that her tenure intends to expand its activities to the nine coastal counties purposely to improve the local fishing industry by increasing and preserving their fish.
Madam Glassco pointed out that her major task is to transform the fishery sector in order to generate revenue to boost the Liberian economy; adding: “this means that we will exploit and sustainably manage the potential in the fishery sector.”
According to her, the fishery sector has some untapped resources and there are other areas that “we can look into purposely to boost the economy like aquaculture which Liberia needs to look into for a short, medium and long terms.”
For now on the local market, the National Fisheries Authority further said that Liberia is having 33,000 metric tons deficit of fish.
“We will direct our focus on this area in order be able to generate more revenue, and make fish will cheaper on the market as well as export some to other countries. “
“There is also the stream fishery which is still untapped and we wish develop policies and strategic plans that will encourage investors to come exploit our fish sustainably to generate revenue to boost the economy,” she said.
“Another program that my administration will look at”, she continued,“ will be the costal livelihood; because Liberia has nine counties where the people there depend on fishing for nutrition, food security, job, and sustainability”.
“Under her administration, she explained: ”we will outsource the sector by changing the net and bring standardized fishing net in order for the fishing sector to be secured and sustained,”
“Another thing that I have noticed among our local fishing communities is that we need to train our people, build their capacities and establish public private partnership agreement in order to establish processing facilities along the nine coastal counties that will add value to the fisheries,” Madam Glassco said.
On the long term, Mrs. Glassco pointed out that is to change peddling canoes to motorized boats
As for the first 100 days, the NFAA has identified some communities like the King Gray, West Point and Point Four as pilot project , but within a week or two, we will be installing a refrigerator plant in King Gray for the storage of fish.
On the issue of illegal fishing, “we are already having the legal framework in place and we have a robust network to monitor our license fishing vessels.”
“We are in close contact with Liberia National Coast Guide and international partners in addressing this problem,” the new National Fisheries Authority Director General said.