New MOU seeks to nurture Maldives’ one-by-one tuna fishing

UNITED KINGDOM
Sunday, February 16, 2020, 20:40 (GMT + 9)

Current and future generations of Maldivian fishermen will receive unprecedented levels of visibility and support through a new Memorandum of Understanding, signed by the International Pole & Line Foundation and Dhivehi Masverin (Maldives Fishermen)

Ahmed Shafiu, president of Dhivehi Masverin teaching new fishermen

[LONDON] To further elevate the Republic of Maldives’ standing as a global leader in the one-by-one tuna sector, a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed between the International Pole & Line Foundation (IPNLF) and local NGO Dhivehi Masverin (Maldives Fishermen). In addition to addressing key knowledge and data gaps, this agreement will also seek to increase the awareness of tuna fishing’s significant contribution to the country’s economy.

With collaborative efforts designed to promote the benefits of tuna fishing as a career and provider of essential food and livelihood, the MOU will establish a stronger foundation from which the Maldives can maintain and grow its thriving one-by-one tuna fishing sector in all regions over many generations to come. 

Another of the agreement’s key priorities will be attracting new talent and young jobseekers to the Maldives’ tuna fishing sector. Using carefully selected imagery and videos – shared through highly popular social media platforms – Dhivehi Masverin has already been successfully building up the engagement of younger generations with one-by-one fishing. In this regard, the organisation’s focus on promoting community benefits has proved particularly fruitful.

Dhivehi Masverin’s President and local fisherman, Ahmed Shafiu, said, “I come from a relatively large fisher family in Gemanafushi island in the south. I have always believed that our fishery is special, but that there is also scope for improvement, particularly in making the lives of fishermen better, safer and more secure. One of the best ways to make these positive changes is to raise the sector’s public profile.”

In signing the MOU, IPNLF and Dhivehi Masverin agree on the following actions:

·       Promote each other’s work through their respective social media platforms

·       Collaborate on conducting skipper training workshops to promote best-practice fishing

·       Support the collection of catch-and-effort and other fishery data, including on livebait extraction and utilisation, to better understand the partitioning of effort for livebait and tuna fishing 

·       Support and assist in promoting the reduction of plastic use in tuna fisheries

·       Support activities that ensure an improved understanding of the social and economic conditions of the fishery and fishing communities, to help develop and formulate fishery development policies and management plans

IPNLF Managing Director, Martin Purves, said, “We are delighted to be partnering with Dhivehi Masverin in this important work. Our two associations share a lot of common goals, and I am confident that by uniting efforts in the agreed areas we can accelerate the progress of the Maldives’ one-by-one tuna sector – thereby expediting the benefits for stakeholders on all levels.”

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