Fishing sector satisfied with total allowable catch for hake

FISHING companies are satisfied with quotas approved by Cabinet this week, a fisheries association said yesterday.
Cabinet on Monday announced it had decided on a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) of 135 000 tonnes for hake – 5 000 tonnes more than the last season, and 8 500 tonnes for monkfish for the 2009-2010 fishing season.

Commenting on the hake TAC and the increased tonnage, Michael Goagoseb, Chairman of the Namibian Hake Association, said: ‘Since last year there’s been an increase in adults, and so a higher TAC is acceptable, although we are still looking at a small increase to give the stocks time to improve in size.’The hake TAC will be shared among Namibia’s 38 hake-fishing companies and the Namibia Fish Consumption Promotion Trust (NFCPT), which has been allocated 1 000 tonnes of the quota. The decision by the Minister of Fisheries, Abraham Iyambo, to allocate a ‘certain amount’ of hake to NFCPT was to boost the trust’s domestic fish distribution activities.Goagoseb said the industry supported this decision.’Most of the fish made available for domestic consumption is horse mackerel – not so much hake. Now our people will have affordable access to hake too, through the trust,’ he said.As for the rest of the TAC, Goagoseb said the state of the hake population had to be considered before quotas were allocated.The monkfish industry association was not willing to comment yesterday because the industry would be electing a new industry chairperson today.’It would be better to wait for the new chairperson to give proper comment,’ said Hugo Viljoen, Secretary of the Confederation of Namibian Fish Associations. adam@namibian.com.na