Greenpeace: Pacific Island governments must address piracy – Fishupdate.com
Greenpeace: Pacific Island governments must address piracy Published: 09 October, 2006
PACIFIC Island governments have been encouraged by Greenpeace to develop a national plan of action that implements the latest international laws against pirate fishing.
Greenpeace want to stop foreign vessels fishing illegally in their Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) and is urging governments to support it.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific Oceans Teams leader, Nilesh Goundar, said pirate fishers were becoming more courageous by the day. Indeed, last week saw an American pirate vessel fined by the Cook Islands High Court and a suspected pirate vessel fleeing from Kiribati officials in a joint surveillance exercise with Greenpeace.
This tells us the Pacific people are having their fish stolen from their plates as it is a major source of protein and an economic resource in most Pacific Island countries, he said.
Even where foreign fishing fleets pay in return for access to a Pacific countrys fishing grounds, the financial returns from these access fees and licenses are worth a pittance of the total value of fish caught, which is often a mere five per cent of the US $2billion that the fish is worth when it reaches the international market, he said.
Mr Goundar said Pacific Islands governments must be united and stand firm in fisheries conservation and management.
The Pacific Island governments must not allow foreign industrial fishing nations to hoodwink them, into accepting unfair fisheries partnership agreements, he said.
Greenpeace is currently on a Defending Our Oceans (DOO) expedition in the Pacific, highlighting the beauty of, and the environmental threats to, the world’s oceans. Greenpeace is campaigning for a global network of marine reserves covering 40 per cent of the world’s oceans.
The tour is part of Greenpeaces 15-month global DOO expedition.
Greenpeace is an independent, campaigning organisation, which uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems and to force solutions essential to a green and peaceful future.
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