The commanders in discussions with Col. Payet Tuesday

A high level delegation of Kenyans will soon come to Mahe to study how Seychelles protects its fisheries.

The deputy commander of the Kenya Navy, Brigadier James Mutungi, said this Tuesday December 23 when he and other commanders of different armed Kenyan vessels called on Chief of Staff Colonel Leopold Payet of the Seychelles People's Defence Forces.

He said that the team will include a Cabinet Minister and will be coming in recognition of the superior strategies in place here.

"They will be coming here on a familarisation tour, to look at the infrastructure that the Government of Seychelles has put in place.

"The aim will be to help us improve on what we have back home," he said.

The commanders said that fish in the region cross from one sector of territorial waters to another and fishing vessels follow them.

"They swim from the east coast of Africa, through the Somalia to the Seychelles basins and on to the Mozambique Channel," the commanders said.

They told Nation that fishing fleets follow the movement of the fish, catching and probably threatening to deplete stocks from our region and getting away without paying any taxes.

"The system of monitoring in Seychelles is more developed compared to ours or to that of Tanzania," the commanders said.

"So a delegation from the ministry concerned will come over to see what Seychelles has in place so that we can enhance ours," they said.

Brigadier Mutungi said that Kenyan authorities meet regularly as do those of the Indian Ocean islands to fine tune their readiness to combat a major oil spill should it occur from a passing oil tanker. He said that since Seychelles and Kenya each has the capability to deal with an oil spill, he was "sure that the two governments would come together and launch a joint effort to deal with such an incident should it happen."

The commanders arrived here on Tuesday) on board two Kenya Navy vessels with 23 junior officers on a training mission. They held talks on bilateral cooperation with Col Payet in the Chief of Staff's offices at Bel Eau.

The Kenyans are due to leave for Tanzania on December 26, 2003.

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