Manus fisheries projects need local government support: Official

By MELYNE BAROI
THE Manus fisheries division wants the provincial government to allocate funding towards the sector to create a more coordinated data sharing platform.
Executive manager Pomat Pomyawai said this was because the division did not receive any funding through the provincial and district services improvement programme (DSIP and PSIP) for its projects.
“For over five years our (division) plans have only been supported by the national government through the Department of Provincial Local Level Government and some non-governmental organisations, he said.
“However most of funds are run and managed by the department and we barely get enough to develop our fisheries projects,” he said.
Pomwayai said that land issues were among the causes of project stagnation and needed provincial government and stakeholder intervention.
“We were able to put up 16 cooperative societies to foster the small scale fishing industry but land disputes have hindered much of their progress.
“Through the inshore fish aggregating device (Ifad) programme run by the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) we built and deployed 15 Ifads to Lou, Ponam and Baluan (islands) which sees tuna, mackerel and other reef fish aggregating around that area to make is easier for conservation and harvesting,” he said.
He said one plan was to produce marinated smoked fish among others to generate income for the local communities and hoped the provincial government could support their plans.