1,000 Kwale youth to be trained in deep sea fishing

More than 1,000 youth in Kwale will benefit from government-sponsored training to boost blue economy opportunities.

The training will be conducted by the Kenya Marine Fisheries and Research Institute.

KMFRI director James Njiru said on Monday the government wants to improve residents' livelihoods and the economy through untapped sea opportunities.

Njiru said the youth will be trained on deep sea fishing and value addition.

"The government has bestowed on us the mandate to lead the research and train youth on commercial fishing," he said.

Njiru said they received Sh1 billion from the government to facilitate the assembling of appropriate equipment to run the training.

He said they target to train 5,000 youth and already 500 from Kilifi and Lamu have benefited.

Njiru said once the youth are equipped with advanced skills in open sea fishing, the country can produce 300,000 metric tonnes of fish per year from the current 26,000 metric tonnes which brings Kenya Sh5 billion.

He said Kenya depends on foreign expertise from Sierra Leone for deep sea fishing. 

The director said if local fishermen are empowered, the fishing industry alone will be pumping to the economy between Sh50 billion and Sh100 billion annually.

Njiru said the government is constructing modern fish landing jetty and ports in Liwatoni, Lamu and Shimoni to support trade and economic growth in the coastal region.

He said the fish ports will contain cargo handling and cold storage facilities to enable bulky fish processing and value addition.

Njiru said the infrastructure in place promotes the implementation of the Fisheries Management and Development Act of 2017 which requires 30 per cent of fish harvested in deep waters to be brought to Kenya.

"It was almost difficult to comply with the policy but with cold storage rooms and appropriate equipment in the fish ports, the fish can be conserved for commercial trade," he said.

Njiru said once the ports are completed residents will get jobs.

The director said licensed investors will be required to prioritise residents in employment.

Njiru spoke when he met two delegates from Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation at Gazi Women Boardwalk in Msambweni, Kwale county.

The delegates had visited the region to gather views for a possible Ocean for Development programme with Kenya. 

The tour was also meant to provide the Norwegian Embassy and Norad with ideas for field trips during the upcoming visit by the director general of Norad and the vice minister of the Norwegian MFA in May. 

The delegates toured KMFRI projects in Mombasa and Kwale.

In Kwale they toured the Mikoko Pamoja project where KMFRI team is enhancing community livelihoods while tackling climate change and conserving marine ecosystems. 

Mikoko Pamoja is a community-led mangrove conservation and restoration project.

The project has managed to restore the 117-acres of mangrove plantation and raked in Sh3 million from the sale of carbon credits per year.

Njiru said the project has largely changed lives and promoted education.

He said the community has built classrooms and bought learning materials for students through sale of carbon credits.

Njiru urged residents to continue conserving the environment, adding that pollution of oceans by plastic materials is still a major concern.

KMFRI chief research scientist James Kairo said about 60 per cent of clean air comes from the sea and the mangroves helps purify it.

“We are trying to exhaust factors and technology to use in taking advantage of various sea opportunities,” he said.

Edited by A.N