1. Ahsan Mohamed Program Officer Ministry of fisheries and Agriculture Maldives

2.  From 1987 we are having “Fisheries Act 5/87” of Maldives.  Under Section 3(1) we have implemented “Fisheries Regulation of Maldives”.  Under section 2 and 3 of the Fishing regulation explained thing are not allow for fishers. Those things were penalized under this regulation.  In this also we mentioned about IUU fishing. We only allows Pole and line fishing for skipjack, hand line for yellow fin and Long line for big eye tuna.

3.  Under Section 3(1) of fisheries act we do have specific regulation for Long Lining in Maldives.  Under section 25 it clearly states things that are not allowed under this regulation  Under Section 3(1) of fisheries act this act we would have specific regulation for Grouper fishery  Under section 13 it clearly states things that are not allowed under this regulation Our skipjack fishery ware specified as MSC certified fishery.

5.  All the fisheries regulations were implemented under Ministry of fisheries and agriculture of Maldives.  All the compliance related to fisheries were handled by compliance department.  In this there are penalties for illegal fishing and fishing operations.  All the penalties were clearly stated in the regulations.  some of them were punished by penalizing.

6.  Those are the world leading association that will work for the sustainable development of fisheries resources in Indian Ocean.  We are also a member of IOTC (Indian Ocean Tuna Commission)  Also a member of EU.  There are mandatory regulation for all the membership countries. We also follows all those regulation.  Under that we develop IUU regulation in Maldives.  All the fishing vessels, fish processing permission were registerd and they must full full there requrment.

7.  In this we do implement IUU regulation of Maldives.  In this we mandatory certain rules for fishing vessels. They are:  Have valid fishing license  Must have health certificate  Vessel must be registered as fishing vessel.  Should have communication sets in the vessel.  Must have VLD system in the vessel  Companies also have some mandatory requirements. They are:-  Submit catch data daily bases  Fish Processing license  Catch certificate for export

8.  3 main challenges that face buy the fisherman  Quality of ice is law  They are unable to bring best quality fish to the market.  Price of fish is law  We unable to give a prize for our fishes.  Price depends on the market prize.  Expenses are higher.  Transportation time  Because of no direct transportation to the destination.  These also add cost like  Ice  Packaging materials

9.  Maldives is member of IOTC (Indian ocean Tuna Commission) since ----  To obey the rules of the commission we do make 2 tracabilitiies. They are:-  Big eye tuna Statistical documents  Catch data

10.  We have strong tractability procedure for Yellow fin tuna and Long Line Fishing.  In this we can trace from the fist to the consumer. All the records taken and send with the shipment.  Vessel that caught the fish  Where they caught the fish.  Date of the catch.  Temperature in the fish  Name of the company produce  Bach number  All the tests like Histamine, heavy mantels.  For other products we can only Trace very few information's.  Place where the product was produces.  Bach number and date of production

12.  Strengths  Good log book system (Validation)  Strong legal frame work (licensing regulation/ long line regulation)  Good compliances Mechanism  Vessels that does not comply are penalized ( often a fire based on illegal fish catch/ double the market price)  Strong MCS  Vessel Monitoring System

13.  Weakness  Manual process ( take time / slow down export process)  A software in the development process  Companies / fisherman’s / processers can entre information and process real time.  Lack of Man power  Inspections are few (Random process)

14. Harmonization of Traceability mechanisms among countries. Use of technology to minimize time and give confidence to the customers

15. Thank You Ahsan Mohamed Program Officer ahsan.mohamed@fishagri.gov.mv