{"id":6730,"date":"2021-12-04T15:13:20","date_gmt":"2021-12-04T15:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/seals-eat-more-fish-than-we-catch-shifeta"},"modified":"2021-12-04T15:36:40","modified_gmt":"2021-12-04T15:36:40","slug":"seals-eat-more-fish-than-we-catch-shifeta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/seals-eat-more-fish-than-we-catch-shifeta","title":{"rendered":"Seals eat more fish than we catch \u2013 Shifeta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>BOTH the fisheries and environment ministries have expressed concern over the large population of seals, estimated to be about 1,4 million. Environment minister Pohamba Shifeta encouraged the fisheries ministry to offer more seal quotas, during a media tour to the Cape Cross seal reserve yesterday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey complain when we cull the seals but they don’t understand that the seals are too many. They finish the fish. More than what we catch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pups consume more than 12kg of fish per day and the bulls up to 20kg depending on their weight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fisheries minister Derek Klazen also expressed concern about the negative impact large seal populations have on fish stocks, adding that harvesting, processing and selling seal products are very challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears that bulls are the more preferred products, while the quota has more pups. I am informed that the pups are not [as] economically feasible as the bulls,\u201d he said. Klazen also referred to the immense pressure Namibia faces from international environmentalist groups with regards to seal culling.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeal harvesting has become an international tool used particularly by environmentalist groups to restrict the trade of fish and fisheries products originating from countries that harvest seals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Namibia Chamber of Environment, however, refutes concerns over the effect of growing seal populations on fish stocks in the country, with CEO Chris Brown saying there’s no scientific evidence to back up these claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fur seal diet is regulated in a bottom-up way, not top-down. This means they consume what is most readily available and don’t target any species in particular. When a species becomes rare, it virtually disappears from the fur seal diet.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says when sardine was abundant (pre-1970s) it was the mainstay of the fur seal diet, however, they have disappeared almost entirely after the collapse of the stock, mainly due to overfishing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is now rarely recorded in the seal diet. They just use it when it is abundant, and their level of offtake was minute compared to the fishing industry.<\/p>\n

Brown says overall, the bulk of the seal diet over the last few decades is made up of non-commercial species like bearded goby, which has increased since the disappearance of the sardine. He expressed concern that scientific evidence has been largely ignored by senior managers and some fisheries ministers over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlaming fur seals or the environment is an easy way to deflect the attention away from poor stock management by the fisheries ministry and overfishing by the industry. The fishing industry is quick to put pressure on the ministry, Klazen has an opportunity now to change all this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brown emphasised that the fisheries ministry should reduce the influence of the fishing industry on fish stock for long-term sustainability, healthy fish stock and a healthy marine environment which would ensures economic activity for decades to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe minister has a chance to start correcting the devastation and corruption of the past and make us all once again respect the marine fishing sector,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. BOTH the fisheries and environment ministries have expressed concern over the large population of seals, estimated to be about 1,4 million. Environment minister Pohamba Shifeta encouraged the fisheries ministry to offer more seal quotas, during a media tour to the Cape Cross seal reserve yesterday morning. \u201cThey complain when we cull the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":6729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,16],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-6730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nSeals eat more fish than we catch \u2013 Shifeta - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"BOTH the fisheries and environment ministries have expressed concern over the large population of seals, estimated to be ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/seals-eat-more-fish-than-we-catch-shifeta\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seals eat more fish than we catch \u2013 Shifeta\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BOTH the fisheries and environment ministries have expressed concern over the large population of seals, estimated to be ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/seals-eat-more-fish-than-we-catch-shifeta\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-04T15:13:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-04T15:36:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2021\/12\/img-61ab8af155af8.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/seals-eat-more-fish-than-we-catch-shifeta#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/seals-eat-more-fish-than-we-catch-shifeta\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Seals eat more fish than we catch \u2013 Shifeta\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-04T15:13:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-04T15:36:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/seals-eat-more-fish-than-we-catch-shifeta\"},\"wordCount\":528,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/seals-eat-more-fish-than-we-catch-shifeta#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2021\/12\/img-61ab8af155af8.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/seals-eat-more-fish-than-we-catch-shifeta#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/seals-eat-more-fish-than-we-catch-shifeta\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/seals-eat-more-fish-than-we-catch-shifeta\",\"name\":\"Seals eat more fish than we catch \u2013 Shifeta - 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