MALE, Jan 31 (HNS) - Due to problems that arose over weighing and selling fish, two boats of Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company Ltd. (MIFCO) harbored at Seenu Maradhoo were boarded by angry fisherman who intimidated the crew, carried out assaults and disrupted work on two boats.

MIFCO Managing Director Adil Saleem said Monday that after coming to sell their fish to the boats “Mahaakalaminja” and “Randhi 402” at around 8p.m Sunday night, the fishermen boarded the boats and halted all work aboard.

He said that each fishing dhoni was paid the value of five tons of fish and the situation was successfully resolved.

“After the six fishing dhonis, who complained about not being able to sell their fish, were paid the amount for five tons of fish by the government, they left. The boats have now started buying fish again,” he said this afternoon.

In a press conference held Monday by MIFCO regarding the situation Adil said that the boats were boarded by 14 fishermen from six dhonis who were on queue to sell their fish. Among them include fisherman of four dhonis from Addu and one from Gaaf Dhaalu, Adil said. Those dhonis are “Naaz,” “Niyami,” “Santana,” “Moafa 286,” and “Ummeedhee.” The identity of one dhoni was not disclosed by the company.

“The problem first arose after sunset when the fishermen of Naaz dhoni, which had been on queue, started to gather the fish. The fishermen of the dhoni informed us that since we had said that we would buy five tons of fish, we would have to do so even if the fish became spoiled,” Adil said.

“When they started complaining fishermen of other dhonis advised them not act in that way. But they disregarded the advice came on the MIFCO boat, attacked the crew, boarded three boats at the harbor at the time, cut off the generators and freezing machine and brought the work of those boats to a halt.”

Adil said the (angry) fishermen threatened to tie up the captain and even put the boat on fire. He also said that they are talking with the fisherman to bring about a peaceful resolution to the problem. “When they turned off the generators and freezing machines the freezing process was shut down for four hours. And due to this 113 tons of fish on board at that time might have been spoiled,” said Adil. “Due to that the freezing capacity had to be lowered today. And 140 tons of fish will be lost Monday.”

The owner of Santana dhoni which was nearby to sell the fish, Ali Rasheed, said Monday on the phone that when the government said they would compensate for the five tons of fish they could not sell they release the MIFCO boat.

“The crew said that they were glad when MIFCO’s “Mahaakalaminja” came to Addu. However, due to long queues the weighing and selling has been taking a long time. When the problem arose again Monday the dhoni was at number 18 on the queue even,” he said.