Greenpeace details fisheries plunder in Pacific
Updated
To Cook Islands now, where conservationists aboard the Greenpeace ship Esperenza have held a press conference detailing the plunder of fish stocks within the international waters of the Pacific, and even within its protected high sea pockets. One allegation in particular suggests 1,500 Taiwanese vessels illegally fishing in the pockets.
Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Ulamilia Kurai-Wragg, Cook Islands reporter
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KURAI-WRAGG: These are the pockets - pocket one is surrounded by Palau, Federated States of Micronesia and Papua New Guinea. The other one [two], the EEZ of Nauru, Solomon Islands, PNG and Micronesia. The fourth one is between Vanuatu and Fiji. And the third pocket, which is referred to as pocket three, is between the Cook Islands and French Polynesia.
They visited the four pockets in the last three months patrolling the area, having a look out for signs of illegal fishing, and they told us at the press conference that so far they've identified four to six illegal ships around there, and also about 1,500 Taiwanese vessels illegally fishing within these four pockets of the high seas. They refer to what they are doing as daylight robbery. And they told us at the press conference that foreign fishing, really, 90 per cent of fishing being carried out in these areas is done by foreign vessels.
COUTTS: Ulamilia, did the meeting discuss what action should be taken, because that's a very high amount of illegal fishing going on in these four pockets?
KURAI-WRAGG: Yes they did tell us that one is the media to work with Pacific island countries to see how they could lobby other Pacific island coutnries to come together to agree in unison for the shutting of the pockets.
COUTTS: But are they talking of patrolling the areas more closely?
KURAI-WRAGG: Well not really patrolling but putting together their support when the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission that oversees the Pacific international waters when they meet next month in Papeete next month. This is where Greenpeace is asking the media to lobby and help the Pacific countries come together and agree to this. I spoke to the Cook Islands Government yesterday, the marine resources, they told me that they have to be very careful because there is a lot of lobbying, there's lots of countries included involved in shutting down any pockets of the high seas. So it needs a lot of lobbying and we have to be very diplomatic about it as well. Talking about the media and also about each Pacific island country when approaching the other. And you know Geraldine, the Commission is really where the owners of the resources on one side of the table, and on the other side of the table you have those that are coming in to fish and those are countries like China, Taiwan, the US, Korea, so you can understand really how important it is to be very diplomatic given that we get a lot of funding from these countries as well.
