Fishermen display fish harvested by MV001. Photo: Hassan Joho/ facebook.com
The fishing industry in Mombasa has received a huge boost after the county's newly launched deep sea fishing boat, MV001, docked with close to 1,000 kilogrammes of fish on Monday night.The boat with a storage capacity of 10 tonnes docked after making its eighth trip to the deep sea following its launch in November 2016 by Governor Hassan Joho.The vessel had been dispatched for a three-day fishing expedition in Pemba, Tanzania before returning to Mombasa through Malindi.Of the 986 kiogrammes of fish caught, 667 kilos constituted 40 pieces of broadbill fish and 319 kilogrammes of seven pieces of Tuna.Swaleh Ramadhan who has been fishing in Mombasa for more than 10 years said MV001 has increased their earnings since it has enabled them to navigate in deep sea.This, he said, was through increased catch.The boat's capacity, he added, cannot be compared to traditional fishing methods which do not support deep sea sailing.“We thank the county for supporting us with this boat,” Swaleh, who doubles as the boat's captain told journalists in Mombasa after docking.“First of all, it is big with a large storage capacity. Initially, we used small boats which, could not take us far and our catch was very small. The furthest place we could go was Ukunda in Kwale county,” he added.