A superseiner owned by Inpesca has been fined Euro 1.2 million for fishing illegally in Mozambique waters, according to Mozambique’s Ministry of Fisheries.
Mozambique authorities inspected the purse seiner, Txori Argi, in Nacala port on March 18 and discovered it did not have its fishing license for the area on board, nor did it send the mandatory report, that details its catch aboard the vessel, prior to entering the region. The vessel had in excess of 1000 tons of fish on board.
Since the Friend of the Sea (FOS) website lists Inpesca as certified sustainable, this charge could possibly hurt this status. Inpesca is one of four companies that make up Pevaeche, the first company in Europe to have their tuna vessels in the Atlantic Ocean certified by FOS since Sept. 2010.
Txori Argi has been operating in the northern part of the Mozambican Channel since the start of the 2012 purse seine fishing season. In addition to fishing in the Atlantic Ocean (from Mauritania to Angola) and the Indian Ocean (from the east African coast to the east of Indonesia), Inpesca will be extending its fishing activity to the Pacific Ocean “in the not too distant future,” according to its website. All five of its purse seiners are authorized to fish in the IOTC region.
Sources:
Press article, ATUNA, 20 March 2012 - http://www.atuna.com/news.html Web site Inpesca - http://inpesca.com/inpesca/dm/presentation.asp?nombre=2086&hoja=0&sesion=1347