Pirate fishers - controlling the 'uninvited guests'
Posted by Andrew at 11:06 AM, August 06, 2004
(C) Greenpeace/Natalie Behring |
"Imagine if you will that our Exclusive Economic Zone (the 200 nautical mile range of our national border) is like a big house. We want it to be clean, we want to know who is going in and who is going out. Unfortunately there are those who come in without our knowledge and cause damage. It's a very big house, and we have an expensive commodity - tuna, so chances are that operators will come in and take it without our knowledge."
This is Glen Joseph's apt description of pirate fishing at a seminar
organised by Greenpeace on Tuesday night (August 3). As Deputy
Director of the Marshall Islands Marine Resources and Agriculture
Department (MIMRA) he has been involved in developing policies
and regulations to address this serious and thorny problem.
Larger photo
Marshall Islands slideshow
Greenpeace conservatively estimates that 5-15and#37; of the annual
tuna catch in the Central and Western Pacific is taken by pirate
fishers. The market value of this catch is estimated to be US$134 million and $400 million per year - more than all Pacific Island States earn in access and
license fees.
Like all Pacific states, the Marshalls is faced with a lack of
resources to properly monitor it's large EEZ or 'house', and to
prosecute offenders. Deputy Attorney General, Posesi Blommfield
said in his presentation:
"It's hard to go out there and catch the violators, it's hard to bring
them in, its hard to identify who the owners are, and its very hard to
bring evidence in and present it to a judge and hope that he will
convict."
But progress is being made on both surveillance and prosecution in
the Marshall Islands. Last year MIMRA prosecuted a fishing vessel
that was photographed shark fin fishing close to Jalut Atoll.
"We successfully negotiated an out of court settlement for US
$110,000. In addition to paying the fine, that vessel's local agent
was shut down, all their vessels were grounded and their fishing
licences were revoked, and have not been renewed."
Posesi Bloomfield is excited by a joint initiative to make
prosecuting pirate fishers easier:
"We're looking at ways to collect evidence which will stand the test
of court scrutiny. Working with the Royal Australian Navy, we have
created a system of user friendly documents, including citation
forms and chain-of-custody forms."
"The aim is to make it like a traffic citation, as simple as
possible,"said Bloomfield. "What we're working towards is
something that Sea Patrol officers can just tick off, and that will
have as much legal effect as possible. I'm extremely excited about
this," said Bloomfield.
Because of the involvement of the Royal Australian Navy there is a
strong possibility that these new templates can be shared with other
Pacific states who are grappling with the same difficulties
prosecuting pirate fishers.
Another development which Posesi Bloomfield says will make it
easier to find and catch pirate fishers in this area of the Pacific is
the cooperation between FSM, Palau and RMI under the Niue
Treaty. This allows for co-operative surveillance arrangements
between the 3 countries. It will improve the ability of all 3 States to
patrol their waters and allows them chase and arrest violators on a
cross border basis.
As well as stopping any loss of revenue through pirate fishing, the
Marshalls are keen to gain more of the value of their fishery
through local industrial development. Currently the fishing industry
contributes about $3.6million to the country's GDP, but the value of
the tuna catch by foreign-based vessels is around US$50,000,000.
Glen Joseph says that the future direction for fisheries
management in the Marshalls must include greater benefits to the
Marshalls and more participation in industrial operations.
"We have a role to play in terms of just managing the fishery, we
also have a role in conserving the fishery. Personally I would want
to see more local participation in the operations perspective."
MIMRA already has a long-line fishing joint venture with a Hong
Kong based company, targeting both the highly lucrative Sashimi
market with air-freighted Yellow Fin and Big Eye, as well as
European canneries. The Marshall Islands Fishing Venture
employs Marshallese on the long-line vessels, as well as on the
dock side. Another venture just across the road is the tuna loining
plant which employs 600 people, supplying cooked tuna for a
Seakist cannery in American Samoa.
-- Caro
