Shem Oirere

Climate patterns across various ocean regions have impacted the production, survival, and performance of fish, fisheries, and aquaculture – which in turn directly impacts the populations that rely on the resource for a living.

A new report published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in partnership with French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD France), says the events of El Niño and La

The raging COVID-19 crisis in South Africa continues to worsen the lives of small-scale fishers as the government tightens measures, initially announced in late March, that led to the closure of key consuming markets for fish and fish products.

With nowhere to sell their catch, small-scale fishers face deepening poverty and worsening food shortages, even as the government insisted on compliance with its lockdown rules to curb the further

Cape Town, South Africa-based frozen fish supplier Sea Harvest Group has announced the resignation of its chief financial officer John Paul de Freitas and appointment of Muhammad Brey as his replacement on an interim basis.

The company said in a statement issued via the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on April 28 Mr Freitas had resigned to “pursue personal interests.”

The resignation of Freitas – who joined the company in 2014 to

Kenya’s suspension of seafood trade with Somalia through the Indian Ocean routes has not been lifted, and anyone caught engaging in the business will be arrested and the fish confiscated and destroyed, according to a Kenyan government official.

The county commissioner for the fish-rich Lamu County in Kenya enforced the edict of the Kenyan government when he destroyed nearly 12 metric tons of dried fish smuggled from neighboring Somalia in

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has found the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the middle of attempting to avert the spread of a separate outbreak – epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS) – caused by an infection of A. invadans among wild fish caught on the streams and rivers in the country’s Equateur province.

By the time the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in DRC on 10 March, the country – which is also

Two state agencies in Liberia have signed a memorandum of understanding on the licensing of fish and seafood exports and imports as government seeks to harmonize the fisheries sector regulatory framework that had previously hampered sector growth.

The MoU, which was signed by Commerce and Industry Minister Wilson Tarpeh and National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA) Director General Emma Metieh Glassco on 30 March, makes it mandatory

Government-owned Seychelles Fisheries Authority (SFA) has announced a  reduction of the prices for core artisanal fishing tools, intended to help fishers cope with unpredictable fish and fish products’ market conditions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Newly-appointed interim SFA CEO Cyril Bonnelame said the reduction of the price of bait, which is mostly used by the small-scale and artisanal fishers; and also for ice, used

The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent national lockdown in South Africa has exposed the vulnerability of the small-scale fishers, according to Pedro Garcia, the founder and chairperson of the South Africa United Fishing Front (SAUFF).

SAUFF is an organization that promotes the interests of small-scale fishers in the country. The group is petitioning the federal government for urgent help for its members, such as a measure that would allow

The South Africa Department of Environment, Forestry, and Fisheries (DEFF) has granted an environmental authorization for a sea-based aquaculture development zone nearly six years after the first one was issued and withdrawn because of protests by environmentalists about the likely negative impact of the project on the environment.

The DEFF said the authorization has been granted “following a number of specialist studies and an

South Africa is in the midst of a 21-day nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19, which has already affected more than 1,300 people and killed five.

However, the country’s fishing industry received an exemption from the lockdown after being designated as being vital to the domestic food industry by South Africa’s the National Coronavirus Command Council. In a statement, Environment, Forestry, and Fisheries Minister