Fishing vessels to start using bird scaring devices

The law for vessels to start using bird scaring devices was finally introduced to the fishing industry in Swakopmund last week Friday.

More than 20 000 sea birds are killed annually in Namibia .The Sea Bird Regulation’s main objective is to reduce the killing of sea birds in the fishing industry. All vessels are now urged to use tori-lines, which are bird scaring devices.

Clemence Naumab from Namibia Nature Foundation concluded the following:

"We wanted to introduce this measure to the fishing industry. There is a maximum penalty of N$500 000 if a vessel is not having or using tori lines. There is a grace period we gave to the industry to get it sorted to make sure that the vessels are having tori lines."