http://www.english.hadhramaut.info 40000 Tons of Yemen Fish Trafficked Annually, Minister Reveals [The Source: www.sabanews.net - 10/11/2009] Minister of Fisheries Mohammed Saleh Shamlan revealed Monday that 40.000 tons of fish have been trafficked abroad a year. The large quantities of fish, most squid, were trafficked with traffickers passing over unloading stations to avoid legal fees over the last year and this year. Shamlan's remarks were given during a discussion organized by the Fish Exportation Association Monday on the health standard strategy for the fishery sector.For his part, secretary general of the association Ali Al-Habashi said that large quantities of fish including squid are sold at unloading posts and they don't appear in statistics put forward to the ministry of Fisheries.Officials at the posts besides other reasons were behind missing information on fish, he said, urging the authorities to take measures committing fishermen to pay legal fees and sticking to quality standards starting from hunting, unloading and preparation to delivery for consumers.During the discussion, head of the association Salim Al-Sa'adi called for cooperation among the fish authorities topped by the ministry to form a common board for full coordination to discuss and help setting out effective fish policies that could help boost the contribution of the fishery sector to the national economy by more than the current ratio of 2 percent.He also called for preparing more hunting ports and sea tongues at all coasts, improving the circulation of fish products with modern fishing boats, developing discharge stations, applying health standards and establishing perfect training programs for fish employees.The strategy announced on Monday for health standards in the fish sector and that was prepared by the ministry in association with the WTO calls for placing the labs of the ministry within a single institution separated from branch inspection, following a suitable method to take samples for testing, appropriating a budget from the ministry's state budget proportion for the test labs, and imposing fees, annual licenses and approval fees.It also stressed the importance of introducing health condition regulations for fishing boats and unloading posts, bringing offered services and imposed fees to tender and expanding inspection to affect fishing boats and ships and discharge stations.Moreover, only the institutions meeting basic health conditions put by the ministry can export fish to regional markets.In the discussion, Lodvica Fizony from the WTO reviewed efforts exerted over the past two years to recommend good health conditions for Yemen's fish products.Yemen hunts about 200 tonnes to 250 tons of fish annually, with almost 98.5 percent of the quantities by traditional fishermen.