Mozambique is famed for its shrimp and prawn - the most important catch for the country’s industrial and semi-industrial fisheries sector.

But shrimp, just like everything else, have been overfished.

“In the 1980s they would catch about 80 kilos an hour. Now they catch 26 kilos an hour,” said Helena Motta, head of the World Wide Fund for Nature’s office in Maputo.

In a bid to conserve shrimp the government is no longer issuing new licences to fish for them – “at least in theory,” says Ms Motta. Mozambique, like most poor African countries, is plagued by corruption.

Mozambique’s industrial and semi-industrial fleet consists of some 150 vessels which employ about 8,000 people.

Shrimp yields are said to have dropped to about a third of 1980s levels

These earn the economy about $100m a year. In 2000, prawn exports were worth $66m – just under a fifth of total exports.

The country makes a modest return selling rights to foreign trawlers to fish in its waters. The money generated, however, is far less than that made by some west African states.

Fishing licences for foreigners are limited to those working in partnership with domestic companies – an opportunity taken up by a number of Spanish, Russian, Japanese and South African vessels working in Mozambique’s waters.

But much of the country's overfishing is due to the small-scale nature of the industry.

Helena Motta, the head of the Mozambique branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature, says one of the greatest problems is the heavy concentration of fishermen along a narrow coastal strip.