Authority wants companies to comply with law

THE National Fisheries Authority (NFA) says that companies participating in this year’s open season for the beche-de-mer (BDM) need to operate within the law.
The authority said companies needed to take note of the legal requirements by law that buying, storing and exporting without original copies of their licence on hand would be deemed illegal and they would be prosecuted. The NFA also advised all fishermen and the public about the list of approved companies that had paid their licence fees in full and were licensed to participate in the 2020 open season as of Sept 1, 2020.
“Companies who have been issued notification notices but have not paid their licensing fees will have their licences processed once they have paid all their fees.” A total of 86 companies from the country’s 14 maritime provinces had made full payments of their BDM licence fees as of Tuesday.
NFA added that all fishermen and licensed operators, as well as the public, were advised to take note of the allocated total allowable catch (TAC) for 2020 open season: Milne Bay-79 metric tonnes; Manus-31 metric tonnes; Central-12 metric tonnes; Autonomous Region of Bougainville-10 metric tonnes; West New Britain-7 metric tonnes; New Ireland-15 metric tonnes; Western-3 metric tonnes; Morobe-5 metric tonnes; Northern-7 metric tonnes; Madang-6 metric tonnes; East New Britain 5-metric tonnes; East Sepik-1 metric tonne and West Sepik-1 metric tonne.