By Joe Jannie

Pretty soon, fishes from the territorial waters of Sierra Leone will enter the European Union (EU) market as final documentation are about to be concluded by the two parties.

Director of Fisheries at the Ministry of Marine Resources, Alhaji Mohamed Faud Sheriff stated at the just concluded two-day training on building national capacity for negotiating fishing agreement that final document to grant Sierra Leone the needed permission to export fishes to Europe is now with the EU.

“With the decline in fish catch, particularly in industrialized countries, and the over-increasing demand for fish for their markets, the need for negotiating fishing agreements with developing countries is greater now than before. Within the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission, all but Sierra Leone and the Gambia have not signed a fishing access agreement with the EU,” Sheriff said.

He said though the fishery sector in the country contributes 9.9% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), provides cheap protein, promotes employment, generates revenue for the government and provides income for artisanal fisher folks and food security, a carefully designed fishing partnership agreement would help manage fisheries and alleviate poverty among the fishing communities.

Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Marine Resources, Paul Sandy who represented the Minister said the idea of fish access agreement came as a result of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) which gave coastal states exclusive nautical mile within which they have sovereign rights on fish resources.

He however noted that before the signing of fishing agreements, decision-makers must base their decisions on relevant factors to maximize profit for the countries and they would also be mindful of distortions that fishing agreements could generate in the medium and long terms for the country.

Programme Manager, Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission, Oscar Balde said member states of SRFC are weak in capacity to negotiate as compared to their EU partners and others.

“Facing this situation, the SRFC with the partnership of UICN, with WWF and with other partners of the PRMC (Regional Programme of Conservation of the Coastal and Marine Zone in West Africa ) set up as plan of strengthening the capacities of negotiation for member states of the sub-regional fisheries commission,” Balde said.