News from Islands
Cape Verdean government grants 300,000 euros to refurbish fishing boats
Praia, Cape Verde, 24 March – Cape Verde’s General Fishing Directorate (DGP) has transferred 300,000 euros to the Atlantic Tuna company, based on the island of Sao Vicente, to transform two tuna boats into pelagic fishing vessels (for various types of mackerel).
Director general Adalberto Veira said that the aim was to increase the catch and, with that, solve the problem of the chronic lack of raw materials facing the Frescomar canning factory.
The two tuna boats will be refurbished and loaned to Frescomar.
According to Veira, work to transform the two tuna boats into pelagic fishing boats is due to begin soon.
“We want to have more boats in the sea catching fish so that we can meet demand for pelagic fish,” said the director general for Fishing.
The tuna boats – 10 units in total – were ordered to be built in Peniche, Portugal by the Cape Verdean government, which paid 135 million Cape Verdean escudos for each unit.
The total cost of these boats was over US$12 million, funded by the African Development Bank (ADB) and by the Arab Bank for Economic Development of Africa, with the intention of re-launching fishing on Sao Vicente.
Over the years those 26-metre boats have proven to be impractical in operational terms.
In 2008, five of the boats were sent to Kwanza Sul (Angola), where they were intended to be used for tuna fishing. This operation also failed and the boats were returned to Sao Vicente.
The Fishing Directorate considers that, with the transformation of the tuna boats into pelagic fishing boats, the problem of a lack of raw materials at Frescomar will be resolved.
In relation to the other eight boats, Rui Vera-Cruz, president of Atlantic Tuna, said that four no longer belonged to the company and the remaining four would soon be acquired.
Source: macauhub
