Pacific Island nations (including Australia) are leading the battle against destructive fishing practices after they endorsed a declaration on deep sea bottom trawling earlier this week.
The declaration commits these nations to take urgent action in preventing this destructive fishing practice.
The declaration comes as welcome news to Greenpeace Australia Pacific because during the past two years the organisation has been pushing the Pacific Islands Forum (16 Pacific countries including Australia and New Zealand) to adopt a resolution supporting a moratorium.
The other Pacific nations involved in the declaration are Fiji, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific oceans campaigner Nilesh Goundar said the Pacific nations are miles ahead in terms of protecting Pacific people's livelihoods and helping to end deep sea bottom trawling.
"We are the first region to solidly oppose high seas bottom trawling," he said. "The Pacific is leading the way in standing up against excesses of industrial fishing and it will hopefully go a long way to getting a United Nations resolution in the coming months," he said.
The UN will re-open discussions in November to decide whether to adopt an interim ban on bottom trawling.
