Maputo — The United States government has offered the Mozambican navy three vessels for maritime patrols, seeking to protect the country's maritime and lake resources against dilapidation by illegal fishing.

The commander of the navy, Rear-Admiral Patricio Jotamo, told AIM that the vessels arrived in Mozambique on 21 December, and will be sent to naval bases at Tete, on the Zambezi, at Metangula, on Lake Niassa, and in the northern port of Nacala.

Jotamo said the American support would be important in helping minimise the looting of natural resources in Mozambican territorial waters.

For example, in the waters of the Bazaruto archipelago, off the coast of the southern province of Inhambane, fleets of pirate fishing vessels, some of which have been recently photographed, help themselves to Mozambique's marine resources. They act quite openly, in the belief that nothing will happen to them.

Asian pirate vessels are hunting sharks, so that they can cut off their fins, which are a prized delicacy in Asian restaurants. But the nets they use catch everything else as well.

Recently 42 dead turtles were counted in less than a month in the Bazaruto area: the turtles had been caught in the nets used by the pirates.

Helena Motta, of the Worldwide Fund For Nature, told AIM that illegal fishing for sharks is now concentrated along the coasts of countries such as Mozambique, which lack adequate naval protection.

The naval base at Tete commands patrol operations along the Cahora Bassa lake, where unlicensed operators have been fishing with impunity for kapenta, a fish that is highly prized on the Zimbabwean market.

A naval post has been set up at Nova Chicoa on the lake shore, and is working closely with the Tete provincial fisheries services. The commander of the Tete naval base, Capt Horacio Charles, thought that the work already undertaken had considerably reduced the amount of illegal kapenta fishing.

Mozambican Fisheries Minister Cadmiel Muthemba has promised heavy fines for illegal fishing. In same cases pirate vessels have been apprehended - but rather than pay the fines, their owners have just left them in Mozambican ports.