Huge pirate tuna fishing operation exposed in Pacific, says Greenpeace
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Version 0 of 1. Greenpeace claims to have uncovered a pirate fishing operation in waters near Papua New Guinea after spotting a Taiwanese ship that allegedly had 75kg of illegally caught shark fins and irregularities in its tuna catch logbook. The group said similar cases were the “tip of the iceberg” of pirate fishing which had driven a sharp decline in tuna populations. Related: Warning over Pacific bluefin tuna stocks as Japan meeting ends in stalemate Activists from the ship Rainbow Warrior II boarded the tuna longliner Shuen De Ching No.888 on Wednesday and said they found it had no licence to fish in Pacific waters. But Greenpeace said Taiwan’s fishing agency retrospectively rushed through paperwork for the ship with the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission after the activists lodged a complaint with both bodies. The Shuen De Ching sailed from Taiwan on 27 June and spent two months in the fishing ground about 1,300 nautical miles north of Australia before the apparently belated move to have its activity declared legal. Greenpeace campaigner Lagi Toribau told Guardian Australia from on board the Rainbow Warrior II it was now up to authorities to show whether this was “an administrative fault or really covering up the tracks of this vessel”. “Prior to us getting on board the vessel, we were able to get official confirmation from the relevant authorities in this region that this vessel did not have authorisation,” he said. Toribau said it was a test case for local leaders because it was “an illegal Taiwanese vessel caught red-handed in the high seas” bordering the rich fishing grounds of PNG, Nauru and Micronesia. “What we’ve done is highlight the loophole in the system. This vessel has been out here for two months. If we did not find this vessel, then it could have been fishing in here for years and no one would have detected it or known how much fish they were actually taking out of the Pacific,” he said. “This is worth billions of dollars to people.” The activists claim they found irregularities in the ship’s logbook around its tuna catch. Only three tonnes of fish were logged over the entire two months, Toribau said, a discrepancy that was often explained by the practice of longline vessels unloading catches to huge “motherships” at sea. It logged only three sharks caught, whereas the sacks containing 75kg of fins suggested a haul of at least 42 sharks, they said. This suggested a “clear violation” of both Taiwanese and Pacific fishing laws, under which fins may not exceed 5% of the weight of the total shark catch. Toribau said the case, which comes as leaders in the Pacific Island forum work on a 10-year plan for a sustainable fishing industry in a region that supplies 70% of the world’s tuna catch, highlighted glaring deficiencies in enforcement. Related: Are my cat and I using more than our fair share of ocean resources? “There is a Taiwanese patrol boat in the region and this is exactly the sort of illegal activity they should be tackling,” he said. Toribau said that most Pacific island nations generally had only one patrol boat each to police fishing in high seas with “a surface area greater than Mars”. Chronic overfishing was the result of “out of control” longline fishing vessels, which have lines up to 170km long with thousands of baited hooks to plunder tuna but which also killed large numbers of sharks, turtles and seabirds every year. Greenpace activists monitored the Shuen De Ching for several days after picking it up from the air by helicopter. They then boarded with the permission of the captain. The crew was made up of 13 Indonesians and two Taiwanese. “Surprisingly they were quite welcoming. They were quite happy, I guess, to see another soul out in the middle of nowhere, really,” Toribau said. Guardian Australia sought comment from Taiwan’s fishing agency. |