The Mozambican state loses about 4 billion meticais annually due to poaching in the Special Economic Zone, said an official source from the sector. 

Leonid Chimarizane, coordinator of the National Marine Institute, said that with illegal fishing, several vessels fail to pay port fees, thus not contributing to the dynamization of the national economy.

"If you pay a license fee, this ship ends up entering the port. At the port, you have to pay port fees, supply food, water, energy, and you have to process the product, just imagine the whole chain.

After that it has to export. This means that a vessel ends up boosting the economy, in this sense, said the coordinator during the closing of the VIII Coordinating Council of the Ministry of Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries, in Maputo.

"We are in this case talking about so many vessels that don't enter the economic circuit and Mozambique ends up losing a lot more."

"It's not only the question of the license, but also the employment of the Mozambican population, because they are going to participate in this whole chain," she added.

As a way to reduce the losses, the source said that the institution has acquired five more vessels to reinforce the inspection of fishing, throughout the country.