A one-day workshop focusing on the theme “Combatting Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activities in the Mauritius Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture”, kickstarted this morning, at the Caudan Arts Centre in Port-Louis.
The Minister of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation, Mr Darsanand Balgobin, the Minister of Blue Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping, Mr Sudheer Maudhoo, and other personalities were present during the launching ceremony.
The workshop was organised by the Mauritius Research and Innovation Council (MRIC) and the Surrey Space Center in collaboration with the Surrey Space Center, University of Surrey, in the context of the project ‘NEREUS – A Space-based Maritime Surveillance System for Fisheries Monitoring and Anomaly Detection’ being undertaken jointly with the support of the United Nations Development Programme’s Ocean Innovation Challenge.
Also, on the occasion, a Contract Agreement was signed between the MRIC and the Surrey Space Center.
In his address, Minister Maudhoo indicated that IUU fishing accounts for 10 – 30% of the global fish catch which amounts to an estimated USD 10 – 23 billion loss, annually. He dwelt on the economic and social consequences of this illicit activity, including corruption, putting responsible fishers at a disadvantage, weakening coastal communities, threatening food security, promoting tax evasion and loss of income.
Besides, these fishing practices are depleting our marine environment by damaging protected areas, unnecessary fish stock depletion, deteriorating the marine ecosystem and thus undermine our efforts to conserve and manage fish stock, highlighted the Minister.
The Blue Economy Minister deplored that IUU fishers gain undue advantage by acting as free riders to the detriment of responsible fishermen who implement all management and conservation methods.
As for Minister Balgobin, he rejoiced that it is a matter of pride for Mauritius that has integrated the circle of emerging Spacefaring nations only two years ago, to undertake the NEREUS project. This project, he emphasised, will propel Mauritius at the forefront of Research and Development in the Space field.
The Minister remarked that the project is yet another new avenue which the MRIC is exploring in its quest to develop the Space field as a future socio-economic pillar for the Republic of Mauritius.
The NEREUS project, aspiring to be a potent tool to contribute in tackling IUU fishing, will use remote sensing imagery and data such as Synthetic Aperture Radar and Automatic Identification System, sourced from a wide network of collaborators and in-kind contributing partners including the Ministry of Blue Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping. These data will be processed using machine learning approaches to derive a near-real time footprint of fishing vessels adopting ‘abnormal’ behaviour in the EEZ of the Republic of Mauritius.
