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Cameroon: CDC GM Wants Chinese Trawlers Checked
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The Post (Buea)
25 April 2008
Posted to the web 25 April 2008
Francis Tim Mbom
The General Manager, GM, of the Cameroon Development Corporation, CDC, Henry Njalla Quan, has said the government needs to take urgent steps to check the ravaging methods used by Chinese fishing trawlers in Cameroon.
Njalla Quan stressed that if government does not take immediate steps to bridle the lot of the industrial fishermen from their destructive fishing methods in Cameroonian waters, there may be no more fish for the country soon.
The GM raised this issue on Tuesday, April 22, during the visit to Limbe of the Inspector General at the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Daniel Awum Anaraban.
Awum was in Limbe to launch the Tiko-Limbe-Bakassi Zone lap a data collection programme aimed at making better the gains of the fishing industry, especially along the coastal waters of Cameroon.He said the data collection exercise was concurrently going on in other two zones: Kribi and the Douala.
The new programme, Awum said, is an offshoot of the Atlantic Community Fishery Development Project launched in 2002 and aimed at developing small scale fishing along the coast of Cameroon.This project has been re-baptized the Atlantic Community Integrated Development Programme involving several other ministries.
Njalla Quan's pre-occupations emanated from a series of problems that have been plaguing the local fishing community along the Tiko-Limbe-Bakassi coastline for over two years now.
Since the influx of the Chinese trawlers and those of other countries into Cameroonian waters, the local artisanal fishermen have virtually been tossed out of the waters.
The trawlers are said to rake every little bit of marine life when they are fishing, nor do they keep out of shallow waters, usually breeding grounds for fish. As the law states, they have to fish within a limit of three nautical miles away from the coastline. But this has not been the case.
Njalla Quan said: "Worse, they do very risky fishing because they switch off their navigational lights each time they steam towards the coastal waters," He went on to disclose that these trawlers also destroy a lot of nets anchored in the sea by the local fishermen.
"This coastline has indigenous fishermen as well as immigrant ones. But these categories of fishermen, today, are almost out of work," said Njalla Quan.The Divisional Delegate of Fisheries, Livestock and Animal Industries for Fako, Dr Cecilia Chiawah corroborated the CDC GM by stating that there were already three abandoned outboard engines in her office left by some disgruntled fishermen who say they can no longer continue fishing because their nets were destroyed by the Chinese trawlers.
She added that the said fishermen had borrowed money to acquire the materials and now they are unable to repay. "One of the nets destroyed, "she said," cost some FCFA 500,000," Njalla told the Inspector General, Awum, that if anything has to be done to make better the sector, these problems plaguing the local fishermen must first be looked into.
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Njalla Quan went forth to call on government to see how inland fishing in Cameroon can be revived. He also said Cameroon's inland waters needed to be repopulated.In reaction to the press after the meeting, Awum said what the government was launching would solve the current problems plaguing the sector.
He, however, admitted that the industrial fishermen have been causing havoc. He said they have included among them security officers who would have to ensure that the trawlers do not violate their limits.
"You know that industrial fishermen are mostly made up of foreigners. As foreigners, all they do is extract and go. They do not want to think about what becomes of the fish in the next generation," he said.
WELL MR QUAN. MAY BE YOU DONT KLNOW, BUT KNOW THAT THE CHINESE ARE ONLY GETTING THEIR MONEYS WORTH. IF YOU GO TO CHINA AND BRIBE THEIR LEADER TO FISH OFF THEIR COAST, , YOU WILL BRING ALL LARGE SCALE SHIPS TO CLEAN THE WATERS OF ALL THATS UNDE IT, RIGHT, RIGHT, THATS ONLY A TINY PORTION OF WHAT WE THE UNARMED PEOPLE OF BRITISH SOUTHERN CAMEROONS AHVE TO ... [Read Full Text]
Hello Mr.Quan. Although I do not know u personally, I will like to say thank you and God bless you for taking note on our behalf and that of the next generation cameroonians. As we all know fish plays an important part of our diet and traditional food, we must try to encourage conservation too. I`m not an expert in that industry though but I believe common sense is not common. It is one of the sectors that need developement and support by the state. If this is not the case right now therefore something is... [Read Full Text]
JEFF ENGLISH, PLEASE STOP BEEING MYOPIC WE ALL KNOW TO WELL WHAT THE PROBLEM, THE ANSWER IS COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE FROM THIS FRENCH-AFRICAN COLONIAL STATE ,CALLED CAMEROUN. ACCORDING TO YOU IF A CAMEROUNIAN NEED TO GO INDUSTRIAL HE/SHER SHOULD, BUT THEN THIS PERSON, OBVIOUSLY WILL PAY A HUGE BRIBE TO THESE FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATOR TP GET A PERMIT, SOME TIME EQUAL TO THE INITAIAL CAPITAL FOR STARTING SUCH AN OPERATIO. AS A WAY OF DISCOURAGING ALL
SOUTHERN CAMEROONIANS ... [Read Full Text]
dear GM henry njalla quan pls stop playing three card even with your brothers all of you are corrope stop playing cach cah with the south west and north west people if you dont have some thing to say please go and sleep. we want this country to sepreat we need the soutden cameroon as before the french people have corrope you people please go and sleep.well let me talk here in cameroon you talk you will remain poor you dont talk you still remain poor please if you realy like us give guns to us MR GM. if... [Read Full Text]
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