According to the news fishing with driftnets is banned in the Mediterranean but still a large fleet of driftnets – fishing nets up to 14km in length that drift with the tide or current and catch almost anything in their path – continues to operate business as usual in Morocco. This practice is said to target mostly swordfish for the European market. It is no doubt that this illegal fishing is likely to have caused the accidental deaths of as many as 20,000 dolphins and more than 100,000 sharks in the past five years alone.
In its report WWF said that their fisheries experts recently visited Morocco where they were told by driftnet fishermen that no changes in the fishing activity of this illegal fleet had occurred in the past few years – despite international prohibitions. Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean, admits that fragile ocean life is still being destroyed by widespread driftnet fishing – against the law – in Moroccan waters.
Tudela explained that thousands of dolphins and sharks – and loggerhead turtles, an endangered species – are caught up in these walls of death in the Mediterranean every year. It is observed that fishing with large-scale driftnets has been internationally banned by the United Nations since 1991. In 2003, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) adopted a more rigorous regulation, banning the use of any driftnets, irrespective of size, for capturing large fish in the Mediterranean Sea.
It is told that the EU has made available to Morocco a total of € 3.75 million for the phase-out of driftnets, and WWF urges the European Commission to demand reports from Morocco on its use of EU public funds for the specific purpose of phasing out its driftnet fleet.
