Greenpeace has issued a press release accusing fleets from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, the US and the EU of using ‘loopholes’ to ‘steal’ 90% of Pacific tuna.
According to the organisation, Pacific Islands only receive 5% of the USD$2 billion profits made from their resources.
Greenpeace and inspectors from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and Kiribati, boarded vessels that were consistently failing to report their activities and positions to relevant authorities through their Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS). Greenpeace says that some had almost certainly been trans-shipping (offloading their catch) at sea, which makes it impossible to monitor or regulate the size of their catch.
The release states that unless drastic action is taken to reduce fishing effort, Bigeye and Yellowfin tuna could face commercial extinction within three years, due to overfishing aggravated by pirates.
Greenpeace says that vessel monitoring is the ‘backbone’ of combating illegal fishing and that there is currently no requirement for vessels to report when they are on the high seas. This is a major loophole as it makes it almost impossible to track their activities. Another serious flaw currently allows a certain type of vessel (Longliners) to transship on the high seas.
Greenpeace is calling for a number of measures to be taken to prevent the collapse of Pacific tuna:
* Ban all transshipments outside ports.
* Revoke the license of any vessel with a faulty VMS, and send them straight to port
* Require all vessels to report from all fishing grounds, including the high seas
* Ban any vessel with a pirate history from the Pacific
In addition, Greenpeace is calling for foreign fishing nations to pay a far more representative fee for their licenses, and for a proportion of this to be allocated to enforcement resources and training.
