Ocean Sentry
(From afp.google.com) United Nations – The UN special envoy for Somalia on Friday sounded the alarm about rampant illegal fishing and the dumping of toxic waste off the coast of the lawless African nation. Foreign trawlers reportedly use prohibited fishing equipment, including nets with very small mesh sizes and sophisticated underwater lighting systems, to lure fish to their traps.
“I am convinced there is dumping of solid waste, chemicals and probably nuclear (waste)…. There is no government (control) and there are few people with high moral ground,” Ould Abdallah added.
Ould Abdallah cited the case of a Spanish trawler captured by pirates while illegally fishing for tuna off Somalia in April.
He said payment of a ransom for the release of the crew “was done in a very sophisticated manner” with the pirates arranging by phone “to be paid in Macau.”
The Spanish government said in late April that it paid no ransom to secure the release of the crew of the Playa de Bakio after six days of captivity.
But Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program then said a ransom of 1.2 million dollars (768,000 euros) was paid.
