The Government of Liberia (GOL), through the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA), has disclosed that the commissioning of the Moroccan newly constructed state-of-the-art Scientific Research Vessel will take place this Friday January 26, 2024. The ceremony will take place at the Bong Mines Pier near the Freeport of Monrovia.
It can be recalled that on January 31, 2023 the Director General of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority, Emma Metieh Glassco, and the Moroccan Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forest, H.E Mohammed Sadiki, signed an agreement that would allow the Moroccan research vessel to conduct an independent stock assessment on Liberia’s territorial water to ascertain its commercial viability and attract further investments.
A NaFAA press release is quoted as saying that the Moroccan Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forest, Mohammed Sadiki, and his entourage are expected in Liberia Thursday, January 25, 2024 for the commissioning ceremony along with other regional fisheries cabinet ministers from Cote D’Ivoire and Guinea Conakry. Liberia is also expecting the Secretary General and Presidents of regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) to the historic event.
The stock assessment is aimed at gathering data which has long undermined the fishery sector, and will be useful to developing a management plan for governance and to ascertain its commercial viability.
The stock assessment, when completed, will trickle industrialization of the fishery sector.
