Fishing sector: threatened by Chinese fishing boats

The association of Malagasy fishing and shrimping companies are getting worried about the fact that the Ministry of fisheries has reportedly sought to establish a commercial contract with a Chinese company, which is headed by a certain M. Cai. According to the source, the contract consists in deploying about twenty industrial fishing boats from China and Indonesia.

Though the boats are supposed to limit its activities only to fishing, local shrimping companies can’t be but worried about the non respect of the contract’s statements. According to them, the massive arrival of industrial fishing boats in Madagascar represents a real danger to the shrimping sector because of the proximity of the fish and shrimp exploitation zones.

Given the proximity of the two exploitation zones, illegal shrimping exploitation by the Chinese company will surely be inevitable, which already happened in the past when Thai fishing boats resorted to illegal shrimping activities due to the absence of an ashore base for the boats and also due to the lack regular and systematic control. Worried about the recurrence of the same problem, professionals in the fishing sector are demanding for more transparency and guarantee regarding the case.