Muhyadin Ahmed Roble, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya

Foreign companies loot and dump toxic wastes in Somali seas in the full glare of the EU and NATO naval forces that patrol the Somali coastal lines, a Somali professor at the University of Minnesota has said.

Abdi Ismail Samater, a professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota claims foreign companies poach and dump toxic waste in Somali waters.

He said foreign interests seized the opportunity to begin looting the country’s seafood after the collapse of the Somali government in 1991.

“Between 700 up to 800 illegal fishing ships directly steal Somali seafood. They took any kind of fish including nest eggs in the deep waters”, he told AfricaNews in an exclusive interview.

He added that foreign ships use prohibited fishing equipment, including nets with very small mesh sizes and sophisticated underwater lighting systems, to lure fish to their traps.

Somalia waters have huge numbers of commercial fish species, including the prized yellow fin tuna.

The illegal fishing ships come from Italy, Egypt, India, South Korea, Kenya, Tanzania, and Spain, according to a research that is yet to be published by Prof. Abdi Ismail Samater and his colleagues at University of Minnesota.

The research also indicates that illegal fishing companies from Japan, China, Denmark and Holland are also part of the lootings process in Somalia.

“The illegal fishing companies poach an estimated between $250 up to$350 million in seafood from Somali waters annually”, Prof. Samater said.

The foreign companies steal an invaluable protein source from one of the world’s poorest nations, where half of its population needs food aids.

One in six Somali children is acutely malnourished – a total of some 240,000 children – the highest acute malnutrition rates anywhere in the world. In south and central Somalia these rates are even higher, reaching one in every five children, According to WFP.

The UN estimates it will need $689 million to provide aid in 2010 to the Somali population, of which 43 per cent live on less than a dollar a day.

Professor Abdi accused foreign companies for ruin the livelihoods of legitimate fishermen. He claimed NATO and EU force in Somali waters don not stop or even speak out illegal fishing in the coast.

“NATO and EU forces are aware of the ongoing poaching in Somali sea but they are focusing on pursuing only their economic and security interest”, he said.

But Lieutenant Colonel Per Klingvall, spokesperson for EU NAVFOR said his force is contributing in monitoring fishing activity off the coast of Somalia.

“We are mandated to monitor and report illegal activities off the coast of Somalia. We have no information about illegal fishing in Somalia”, Per Klingvall said.

“European fishing vessels pass their location to us daily, they have not been in Somali waters since they started passing EU NAV FOR their details. As far as we can monitor the European fishing fleets are outside the, by Somali, declared 200 NM Economic exclusive zone.”

Prof Abdi Ismail Samater said foreign warships came to the Gulf of Aden to protect only their interests and the increasing insurance costs.

But the spokesperson for EU NAVFOR said that their main objective is to escort World Food Programme (WFP) ships so they can deliver humanitarian aid to the Somali people.

“Since we started Dec 2008 we have escorted more than 80 ships who have delivered more than 410 000 metric tons. That feeds 1 300 000 people every day”, he told AfricaNews.

‘Other missions are to escort AMISOM logistic ships and other vulnerable ships. We are also mandated to disrupt and deter acts of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast”.

Somali pirates are causing havoc in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes connecting Europe to Asia and the Middle East.

“There are stories that piracy probably started as a reaction to foreign illegal fishing over 10 years ago.

However, the pirates are no longer motivated by good causes – all of the recent attacks off the East coast of Somalia have been hundreds of miles from Somali waters and have been for financial gain only”, said Per Klingvall.

In sharp contrast to the EU Naval force for Somalia, Professor Samatar says a number of pirate are out to make money, some are patriots who are out to defend the waters against looting.

“All power full states are just pushing only their interests. Somali pirates took only $35 million each year while foreign companies loot $350 m seafood annually.

No-one is addressing looting but World bodies are busy discussing pirates”, he said.

Prof Samater says western nations are only focused to fight pirates since it is a threat to their economy.

“No one is listening to a weak person who is crying and saying “please don’t take my fish”. No nation is serious for Somali issue. They are all busy for their interests”.

Warships from the United States, Britain, Japan, France and other countries have been trying to stop Somali pirates, but have been unable to uproot the problem of piracy.

The international community has been focused on training Somali ground forces–military and police–to defend Somali government from Islamist rebels but EUNAVFOR spokesperson said they have no mandate to train Somali Naval Force.

Source: http://www.africanews.com/ | Posted on Friday 22 October 2010 – 09:45