Kingfisher Boats
P.O. Box 29
Malindi
Kenya
Tel: +254-42-20123
Email: kingfisher@swiftmalindi.com
Subject: Kingfisher Weekly Report week ending 19.04.04
Very sorry to be late with this report but have been up to Tsavo over the weekend and got back on Monday afternoon. So refreshing to be up there in Tsavo where all is a beautiful green ( they have had lots of rain) only to return to Malindi which looks like a desert.
The weather. Very hot indeed, humidity awful. Sea is calm, wind from
south east, clear skies. On Sunday the wind really started strong from
the south. Hope it brings rain.
Fishing. Few boats going out now although weather good. Too much weed
floating around in the sea making trolling difficult, constantly clearing
lines. Snark was out on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and caught mainly
kingfish and dorado. Thursday Eclare went out on an overnight trip to
the rips with Russell Brumby and Thomas Wright. They had two broadbill
strikes early in the night but both fell off after fifteen minutes.
Annoying, however Russell did get a tiger shark of approx 200 kg and
Thomas a silvertip of approx 80 kg. No other boats have been out from
Malindi this past week.
The commercial boys are going full bore. Four trawlers operate out of
Malindi now, and one can see them from the shore going up and down,
up and down . They get to the anchorage late and keep the trawl down
right up to the reef. When they leave in the morning they put the trawl
down just outside the reef. These boats are operating under license
from the fisheries department ostensibly in the interest of research.
I can not understand why all four boats are researching when one boat
could have done the job. These trawlers are not getting very many prawns
at the moment, but they are getting tons of small (juvenile) fish daily,
so they are basically relying on the by catch to keep going. Snark fishing
on Tuesday found a dead turtle in the sea which had obviously been killed
by a net. These turtles have probably traveled thousands of miles to
return to their place of birth and repeat the process of reproduction
which brought them into the world. The ringnets still operate and have
actually moved onto Malindi/Watamu Banks. They are now taking out bonito,
rainbow runners and koli koli etc; all the baitfish for sportfishing.
Sorry to sound so depressing, but the situation is quite alarming and
something must be done about it. Hopefully next week things will look
a little better.
HP
Kingfisher Boats
P.O. Box 29
Malindi
Kenya
Tel: +254-42-20123
Email: kingfisher@swiftmalindi.com
Website: www.kenyasportfishing.net
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