KUALA PERLIS, The Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia (LKIM) has urged youth, especially children of fishermen, to master skills necessary to become boat skippers as preparation to manage large fishing vessels capable of fishing in Zone B and C to enjoy more lucrative incomes.

Its chairman, Muhammad Faiz Fadzil said training centres to train skilled skippers run by the Fisheries Department were located in Lumut, Perak and Chendering, Terengganu.

“Our only problem is the lack of interest among children of fishermen or possibly the lack of exposure, so we want the fishermen’s associations to encourage their children to gain these skills first, we don’t want Malaysia to always rely on foreign skippers forever, even though we have large fishing vessels,’ he told reporters after a RAHMAH Mesra MADANI programme with Perlis fishermen at Dataran Semarak, Kampung Seberang Ramai here today.

If more younger fishermen were skilled enough to be skippers and were able to adapt to fishing using large vessels, th
ere would be more large fishing vessels run by locals, which would curb encroachment of foreign large fishing vessels in the country’s territorial waters, he added.

‘It’s undeniable that the initial capital is high to purchase a large vessel (costing) RM2 million and above, but we have Agro Bank to help in terms of capital loans and such,’ he said.

Muhammad Faiz also said that fishermen were urged to get involved in downstream businesses to boost their economic status instead of focusing solely on fishing, and that LKIM has 137 fishermen’s markets and 10 grocery stores in the country so far for them to market and sell their products.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency