The Cambodia Daily
Streamlining fisheries cantonments and allowing finer fishing nets to allow for a bigger catch will be introduced as part of an amendment to the Fisheries Law signed off by the Council of Ministers on Friday, an official said. The amendment gives provincial agriculture departments the responsibility to oversee the work of provincial fisheries cantonments, said Ing Try, deputy director of the Agriculture Ministry’s Fisheries Administration.
Mr. Try said on Sunday that the administrative transfer—first ordered by Prime Minister Hun Sen last year—was aimed at making the fisheries cantonments’ work more efficiently. “All sizes and mesh of fishing gear will be clearly regulated by the Agriculture Ministry,” he said.
Eng Chea San, director of the Fisheries Administration, said the directive would be finalized at the end of the year. Mith Soksopheak, chief of South Tonle Sap lake’s fisheries administration inspectorate in Pursat and Kompong Chhnang provinces, said downsizing the net mesh size was based on requests by fishermen, who said the current legal size of 1.5 cm could not catch enough fish.