FISH diving at night is illegal and is banned, therefore those doing so should be reported to the nearest Fisheries Department.
Speaking at the Nadogo district meeting at Nasasa in Wainikoro last week, North senior fisheries officer Alivereti Tuinamata said people could dive for fish at night for family and village obligations.
Mr Tuinamata said the exemption applied to those that dived for catch to sell.
According to Mr Tuinamata, there had been a lot of night fish diving activity in the country for commercial purposes and this affected fish stocks.
With this in mind, Mr Tuinamata said the Fisheries Department had thought of exempting night fish dives.
While also reflecting on incidents of bends related to diving, Mr Tuinamata said the department was concerned about people who continued to dive for unregistered companies, who were not fully equipped with standard diving apparatus.
Mr Tuinamata said there was only one registered gas diving company in Macuata. He said the advantage of diving for registered companies was they were insured, meaning any injuries incurred by divers during their dives was covered by insurance.
He urged people to value their life and to say no to unregistered companies that were trying to make money through cheap dangerous conditions.
Mr Tuinamata said those companies needed to be reported to their office so that they could be taken to task.
