Introductions

My name is Musse Gabobe Hassan. I was born at Adale district but raised up in Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia. My secondary studies, I had attended Maritime and Fishery Institute, Mogadishu. My first-degree studies, I had received from the Department of Marine Science of Technical and Commercial Teachers' College, affiliated to Somali National University. After completion of my first degree, I was employed as a teacher at Maritime and Fishery Institute.

I obtained my Master of Science in Aquatic Resource Management from University of Putra Malaysia. I did some research work on Target Strength of Pelagic Fish Species and Its Application for Fish Stock Assessment as well as some population dynamics in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia whereby I published a number of publications.

After completing my Master of Science, I some time worked with an industrial project entitled: "Fish as Biosensors of Environmental Pollution". The project aimed to develop a laboratory and field monitoring system in Malaysia based on responses of electric fish to a range of pollutants with a view to establishing a reliable system for detecting changes in water quality.

I am the founder of Somali Fisheries Society (SFS) which is a professional non-governmental organization representing both Somalia's marine and fisheries scientists. It hopes to offer important platforms for fisheries and marine scientists in useful mechanism for people to collaborate on issues of fundamental importance.

The main aims of SFS are to advance knowledge on all aspects of fisheries and related activities with particular reference to Somalia and the neighboring countries so as to foster rational pioneering development and management of marine environment, capture fisheries and related activities for food, recreation and conservation.

Building up a network of professionals in a country, which is entirely devastated by a civil war is not simple. There are endless hiccups however one can get the real picture and status of Somali fisheries at: http://somali-fisheries.homepage.com/somareport.html and http://somali-fisheries.homepage.com/scott.html.

At this stance, we would like to appeal EU member countries to assist us taking responsibilities towards addressing major issues such as fisheries environment and creating pools of experts from academia and business community and encouraging establishment of non-governmental bodies. We need assistance to enable the society to run Somali fisheries network to be able to fill the gap created by lack of national institutions in order to stand by other regional bodies by disseminating information, by attending workshops, conferences and other important meetings.