FISHERMEN PROJECTS

According to various reports published by international organizations, fisheries in Somalia and Somaliland remain untapped. FAO estimates this abundance of fish in the national marine fisheries at 380,000-400,000 tons and maintains that a maximum sustainable yield of 40,000 tons could be harvested without endangering the stocks. At present the current exploitation of the potential is less than 10%.
33 Findings from feasibility studies undertaken in the coastal fishing areas on fish value chain revealed that Somalis marketing and distribution of fish is still very poorly developed state apart from a few fishing locations where cooling facilities exist and where marketing is done in more formalized way. Among the challenges in the sector include the foreign illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing, disorganized fishing communities and lack of organized cooperatives. Infrastructure is another critical challenge in the fishing sector; fish landing structures including the jetties are non-existence. The cold storage and cooling facilities are not sufficient to cover the needs in the value chain systems—transportation and markets are also underdeveloped. Lack of adequate skills and equipment among the artisanal fishing communities exist.