The Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Derek Klazen, and scientists say the horse mackerel species is under severe threat.

The industry has been warned about unsustainable catches of horse mackerel stock.

A scientist in the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Graca D'Almeida, raised alarm at the annual industry address held at Walvis Bay.

Supported by Minister Derek Klazen, it was revealed that the size of horse mackerel has gotten smaller over the decades, while catches of the stock have become unsustainable.

Fishermen at Walvis Bay have established the October Seafarers United Land and Housing Federation, which will negotiate affordable land and housing for seafarers.

In 2015, a strike in the fishing industry led to massive job losses, and as a result, fishermen used to camp at the Kuisebmond stadium at Walvis Bay.

Eventually, the government stepped in and consulted companies to re-employ the people.

Although they had no physical employment, the fishermen were on the companies' payroll, and they decided to create a land and housing savings group.

Former Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Bernhardt Esau informed Judge David Munsu that his health condition has worsened after his incarceration at the Windhoek Correctional Facility.

Esau, who is applying for bail, informed Munsu that the facility does not have the capacity to provide proper care to those who suffer from chronic illnesses.

He has been admitted to the Lady Pohamba private hospital twice now; his hospital stay came at a time when his bail application was set to resume.

Close to 700 unemployed fishermen at Walvis Bay have secured permanent and full-time jobs at four fishing companies.

This follows an agreement signed by the Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister with the companies recently.

The fishermen were part of the mass resignations witnessed at Walvis Bay in August last year.

Over 600 resigned because they were not happy with being paid the N$4,000 monthly allowance while they had no active jobs.

The Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Derek Klazen has called on local entrepreneurs and the fishing industry to add value to all their products.

Klazen visited a polystyrene manufacturing plant in Walvis Bay.

The plant is owned by the Merlus Group of Companies, which invested about N$50 million to acquire the land.

Merlus is a fishing company that processes and exports fish to the European market. 

20% of the fish is exported as fresh hake by flying it from Walvis Bay, where it arrives in Spain the next day. 

The fishing sector remains one of the top industries, contributing to the country's economic growth, Gross Domestic Product, and export earnings, despite hardship and a bleak financial outlook the past two years.

This was reiterated by the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Derek Klazen, during the annual address to his staff in Windhoek.

The Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources has warned the public to refrain from approaching wandering seals in public spaces or on beaches because they are dangerous.

Seals use the period from November to February to gather at specific spots along the coast to breed and mate.

However, they may be found anywhere on the beach resting or may appear disturbed, starved, weak, or lost.

The Ministry warns the public not to disturb pups that may look lost on the beach or in the streets because their mothers may be in the process of relocating them.

An inter-governmental delegation, led by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, which is in the ||Kharas Region to engage communities on the benefits of fishing, visited the Kameel River, a catchment area of the Neckartal Dam, to familiarise themselves with the situation on the ground.

The Kameel River on the banks of the Neckartal Dam was flooded after the area received above-average rainfall in recent years.

The flooding cut off a number of access roads and grazing fields for nearby farming communities.

Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Derek Klazen is concerned about labour unrest in the fishing industry.

Minister Klazen was addressing union representatives and fishing industry leaders at the launch of the National Fish Consumption Day at Walvis Bay.

Klazen specifically referred to a union which allegedly convinced more than 600 workers to unlawfully resign on 29 August.

The government, after negotiating with fishing companies, managed to get the workers employed in 2020 and 2021 in exchange for fishing quotas.

The Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Derek Klazen, has called on the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, or the Ocean Panel, to do more to market investment opportunities in the ocean economy.

This, Klazen says, will maximise the country's economic benefits. 

The minister made the call at the just-ended Ocean Panel on the margins of the 77th United Nations General Assembly in New York.