European Fishing Pirates Hit Pacific: Greenpeace
Date: 26-Sep-07
Country: AUSTRALIA
Author: Rob Taylor
Surveillance of fishing fleets near the tiny Pacific
nations of Kiribati and the Cook Islands showed European owned
or operated vessels had expanded their range from the Indian
and Atlantic Oceans -- mainly in search of tuna.
"Most of the cases documented show clear links to tuna
being sold in European markets," Greenpeace said in a new
report on what it said were "European sharks" biting the
Pacific.
With a global tuna shortage, large European firms named by
Greenpeace as Albacora, Calvopesca and Conservas Garavilla,
were sending fishing boats into the western Pacific under flags
from Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador and the Netherlands Antilles.
"All Pacific island nations negotiating fishing agreements
with the European Union need to be fully aware of the track
record of Spanish and Dutch-owned vessels in the region,
including their pirate fishing operations," Greenpeace Oceans
Campaigner Lagi Toribau said.
"Instead of cutting back the amount of fishing, both legal
and illegal fishing fleets are expanding," the report said.
Spain-based Calvopesca and Albacora's interests include
refrigerated tuna fishing boats, transportation, storage,
distribution and sale into European supermarkets. The
companies
say on their web sites that their fishing operations comply
with international laws.
But Greenpeace said seven of 11 fishing incidents this year
were linked to European firms and Ecuadorian company Nirsa,
which also sells fish to European stores.
Some were licensed only for fishing in the Eastern Pacific,
while others were caught in exclusive fishing zones near
Kiribati and French Polynesia, Greenpeace said.
Up to 300,000 tonnes of tuna were being stolen from the
Western and Central Pacific each year. Experts have called for
big reductions in catches of big-eyed and yellowfin tuna.
Southern bluefin tuna catches are also unsustainable with
an even chance that all fish capable of laying eggs will be
gone by 2030 if current catch levels continue, according to a
2006 report by Australian, New Zealand, South Korean and
Japanese officials.
Greenpeace said small Pacific island nations should form a
common negotiating block to better enforce conservation and
surveillance measures with the EU and other fishing nations.
"The high-seas pockets in the region should be closed to
all fishing activities as no-take marine reserves ... in order
to halt rampant pirate fishing, and to enhance stock and
biodiversity protection in the region," Toribau said.
