Emergency motion against longline fishing rejected by Parliament

Parliament has today rejected the emergency motion submitted seeking to halt the government from issuing permit for longline fishing.

When submitted to parliament, the motion was put up for voting. A total of 47 members voted against accepting the motion, with only 11 voting in favour.

Kendhoo MP Mauroof Zakir submitted this motion, stating that although the previous governments had also brought up the issue of allowing longline fishing on several different occasion, it was never passed. The main reason for this is the adverse effects doing so would pose to marine biodiversity, and the risk of extinction of endangered species, Mauroof said.

Mauroof said that allowing longline fishing would prove detrimental to the tourism industry, along with several other industries.

He said that once longline fishing for yellowfin tuna is approved, the opportunity to get permits and quota for this would be most easily available to foreign businesses, with general fishermen in Maldives having a lesser chance of being able to obtain quotas. As a result, their livelihoods and earnings will be significantly decreased, he warned.

"Allowing longline fishing on a quota basis would indirectly open up the risk of a black market for quotas being formed. There would be also an immense risk of monopolizing the fisheries market as well," Mauroof cautioned.

Mauroof went on to warn that allowing longline fishing would cause long term, irreparable damage to the oceans and the tourism industry. He highlighted that there will also arise a risk of protected species such as turtles, rays and sharks going extinct.

"This paves the way for the ocean ecosystem to become destroyed in the long term," he said, appealing to disallow longline fishing.

Mauroof also noted that longline fishing had been banned in 2019 due to an increase in illegal activities on the seas, adding that the Maldives does not have sufficient mechanisms set in place to properly monitor such incidents. He cautioned that an increase in such incidents may result in a ban from exporting fisheries products to Europe.

Citing these reasons, Mauroof called on the government to repeal the cabinet decision to allow longline fishing. However, the parliament voted to reject this emergency motion.