Longline fishing for tuna will remain closed in the Maldives, the island country’s president announced on Aug. 29. The decision came after local fishers, conservation NGOs and scientists protested against plans by the administration of President Mohamed Muizzu to reopen longline fisheries for yellowfin tuna and bigeye tuna. Longline fishing has been banned in the Maldives since 2019.
“I am quite relieved by the decision and hope that the Government will uphold it,” Shaha Hashim, chairperson of conservation NGO Maldives Resilient Reefs, told Mongabay over a message. “This decision will not only safeguard the livelihoods of fishers and the tourism industry but also protect our marine biodiversity.”
Fishers in the Maldives have traditionally used pole-and-line fishing to catch tuna like skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) and yellowfin (Thunnus albacares). But since 1985, the Maldivian government has alternated between allowing and restricting longline fishing to increase catches of yellowfin and bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus). Longline fishing involves placing a long horizontal drag line that can stretch for kilometers, with thousands of baited hooks suspended in the water for several hours.
“While they are very good at catching tuna, they also catch and inflict immense collateral damage, entangling and drowning seabirds, turtles, manta rays, sharks, many of them endangered,” Callum Roberts, a marine conservation biologist with the University of Exeter, U.K., told Mongabay. Most recently, the Maldives discontinued longline fishing in its waters in 2019, after a European Union delegation highlighted several violations from the practice and warned they could lead to a complete ban on fish imports from the Maldives. The EU is a major export market for tuna from the Maldives.
Earlier this year, Fisheries and Ocean Resources Minister Ahmed Shiyam noted that the Maldives was vastly underutilizing the yellowfin quotas allocated to the country by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission. To increase tuna catch, Shiyam advocated lifting the 2019 ban and reopening longline fishing, a decision the Maldivian cabinet approved in June.
Local yellowfin tuna fishers represented by the Bodu Kanneli Masveringe Union (BKMU) protested, saying longline tuna fisheries could “devastate [the] pole-and-line fishery, potentially leading to severe financial hardship for local fishermen and their investors.” In August, Shiyam’s ministry opened the proposed longline fishing regulation for public consultation.
Eighteen environmental NGOs responded with joint comments, urging the government to reconsider the decision given the fishing practice’s potential harms to the Maldives’ marine life and local fishers. President Muizzu’s decision to keep the ban will ensure “Maldives [is] at the forefront of international efforts to safeguard ocean life and secure sustainable fisheries,” Callum said. “We must remain vigilant though, as there will likely be increasing pressure to exploit our sustainably managed fish stocks,” Hashim added.