Fishing vessels under water for 6 months

Four heavily built fishing vessels weighing in the ranges of 80 000 to 100 000 tonnes, including one belonging to Maldeco Fisheries, remain submerged in Lake Malawi months after they sunk.
Investigations to establish the cause of accident on the Maldeco fishing vessel, which capsized and sank in the lake on January 31 this year, were still underway, according to the company.
Fatch Lake Fisheries, which owns the other three fishing vessels sitting at the bottom of Africa’s third largest lake, said the company got an K8 million quotation from Mota Engil, now running what used to be Malawi Shipping Company, to retrieve the three vessels, but could not afford the amount.
Caesar Fatch, managing director of Fatch Lake Fisheries, said the company’s vessels sank about six months ago but the quotation the company received from Mota Engil scared them.
Said Fatch: “We are in a dilemma. You look at what comes in, K8 million is an amount we can ill afford for this operation. Our biggest worry is that as time passes, damage to the vessels is becoming extensive.
“The vessels, which are huge as they weigh 80 000 to 100 000 tonnes, have computers and engines in their system, and any long stay under the waters will mean extensive damage to these apparatus.”
However, Maldeco said Mota Engil was approached but advised that such an operation must be done by a company which is specialised in vessel salvaging, which they are not.
Maldeco operations manager Jenara Ngwale said in response to a questionnaire that efforts were being made to refloat the vessel, known as Fish Eagle, with minimum damage to the vessel itself and to the environment.
Said Ngwale: “Quotations have been submitted to the insurance company and they will make the final decision on who to engage.
“The designer of the vessel was consulted and they worked out procedures on how to refloat the vessel…From the proposals received the company made a recommendation to the insurers based on [some] factors.”
She said some of the factors included that the salvage company must be able to minimise damage to the environment when executing the work, for example, by providing the mechanisms to be employed to move about 2 000 litres of fuel expected to be on board and control pollution at the site.
The salvage company, Maldeco proposed, must provide a method that ensures there is minimum damage to the vessels.
But Ngwale said the sinking of the vessel did not affect operations of the company because they have four other vessels which are being used for fishing business.
Said Ngwale: “Apart from the capture fishing, we also have the aquaculture division which is involved in fish farming in cages and ponds. We are currently harvesting from these two and making sure that fish remains available on the market. Apart from that, we have also increased fishing hours of the remaining vessels.”
The operations manager said this accident was the first of its kind for Maldeco as their vessels go for regular service and safety checks according to marine regulations.
Malawi Shipping Company consultant advisor Austin Msowoya said the company’s charges are generally good and are calculated based on what goes into the work.
He said the company offers charges that can allow it to remain in business and make profits, adding that the problem is that their clients are, just like anyone else, hit by the bad economic situation. n