Training fishermen to avoid catching unnecessary species, known as bycatch, and to take care to not discard old nets and traps will reduce the amount of fish caught in 'ghost' nets which impact fish stocks all over the world.

Also called ghost fishing, nets left behind continue to trap fish, turtles and other marine species for years.

An Arabic training video called Managing Bycatch and Reducing Discards by the Food and Agriculture Organisation will be released during a three-day conference held by the Regional Commission for Fisheries (RECOFI) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) which starts in Dubai today.

Every year about 640,000 tonnes of discarded fishing gear gets added to the oceans, or 10 per cent of the world total of marine debris, according to a study by the UN FAO and UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), Reuters reported this week.

According to Hamed Al Rahoomy from the UAE Fishermen's Association an unknown number of cages are lost annually either due to theft, cut buoys or bad weather.

"Fishermen lose money when they lose a cage so it is not in their best interest to leave cages at sea," he told Gulf News.

By law nets can only be used from October to April, and cages are used the rest of the year. A certain amount of education has already been given to the fishing community about leaving nets behind.

"Fish left to die in a cage creates a bad environment for the fisherman in that area, it is harmful and he knows it."

During the conference RECOFI will discuss and deliberate on issues including the establishment of the Regional Aquaculture Information System (RAIS); progress made towards the development of a regional programme for aquatic animal health in aquaculture and the sustainable developments of marine cage aquaculture in the region.

The state of exploitation of the fish stocks in the RECOFI region will also be reviewed. According to the FAO, total fish capture in the RECOFI area which includes the Arabian Gulf and the Oman Sea, has increased from around 500,000 tonnes in 1998 to over 700,000 tonnes in 2006, in 2007 total catch slightly decreased by four per cent

The UAE recorded a total fish catch of 87,000 tonnes in 2007. In the last 20 years the biggest catch was in 1998 when 114,739 tonnes of fish was caught.

Activities undertaken to prevent, and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in the RECOFI region is also on the agenda.

Source: Gulf News