Fishing has improved in the southern atolls, with over 700 tonnes of fish caught on Saturday alone.
Fishermen from Gaafu Alifu atoll told RaajjeMV that all boats that went fishing on Saturday had caught an average of 15 to 20 tonnes of fish, each, and that a record 43-tonne had been caught by a fishing boat from Fares-Maathodaa.
According to them, fishing started improving last Wednesday.
Speaking to RaajjeMV on Sunday, chief operating officer of the Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO) Ramzee Aboobakur stated that 400 tonnes of fish was weighed in Kooddoo island alone on Saturday, and that MIFCO’s boats in the area had caught around 300 tonnes of fish as well.
Noting that over 700 tonnes of fish had been weighed on Saturday alone, Ramzee said that April 7th was a historic day for the industry. He noted that this is a record amount of fish that had been weighed in a single day, within the past two years.
However, official from the Kooddoo Fisheries Complex spoke to RaajjeMV about the difficulties, including the long queues to have the fish weighed, but praised MIFCO’s work to ensure that all boats are attended to.
It was the same case in April 2017 as well, with fishing improving remarkably in the southern atolls. Due to their failure to manage the weighing process, MIFCO was forced to dump some of the fish back into the sea.
Following the sudden increase, MIFCO had then announced that only 2.5 tonnes of fish can be weighed by a single boat.
