Namibia is in short supply of fisheries observers needed to cover all fishing vessels in Namibian waters.

The Fisheries Observers Agency (FOA) is worried about the dwindling numbers of observers, as data collection suffers.

Commercial fishing vessels must adhere to certain rules when harvesting, handling, and processing marine resources.

The FOA monitors compliance with those rules in Namibia. The agency also exists to collect scientific data that helps the government make decisions about the allocation of fishing quotas.

"They are there on a daily basis, and all this data they collect helps the ministry in that stock assessment. So without this data, the Ministry of Fisheries will obviously not be able to have proper estimates in terms of the stock at sea," said FOA CEO Stanley Ndara.

Government statistics indicate that more than 240 vessels were licensed to operate in Namibia during the 2023/24 financial year. The vessels undertake thousands of fishing trips each year, and observers are required to be on board to monitor compliance.

When the agency was set up in 2002, there were over 200 observers; now there are 121.

The state-owned agency has not been recruiting observers because its funding model, introduced in 2014, is outdated.

"When the new funding model was introduced, the subsidy fell away. So it meant that the agency only had one source of revenue, which is the landed mass or landed values. But then there are also implications; for example, if you take the October closure of the hake season, there would not be any revenue for the institution because hake is closed for that season." 

The agency asked the government to increase the levies received from the commercial vessels, and the request was recently approved.

Among others, the agency further wants the reintroduction of a government subsidy to improve operations.