Greenpeace yesterday said its members boarded a Taiwanese ship allegedly operating illegally near Papua New Guinea, finding bags of shark fins onboard in what could be the latest example of the lucrative poaching in the region.
The reported discovery of 75kg of shark fins by the activist group on Wednesday night came as regional leaders met in Port Moresby for the Pacific Islands Forum to work on a sustainable fisheries roadmap.
Global seas have been fished to dangerously low levels, according to independent panel the Global Ocean Commission, hitting fishing-dependent countries, such as in the Pacific, where the multibillion dollar tuna trade is an economic lifeline for some.
Photo courtesy of Greenpeace
“It shows the extent to which illegal fishing is out of control in the high seas, and that more needs to be done to help Pacific nations with enforcement,” Lagi Toribau of Greenpeace Australia Pacific said in a statement.
Greenpeace said the Shuen De Ching (順德慶) No. 888, reportedly a Taiwanese-flagged tuna longliner, was operating in international waters near Papua New Guinea when activists boarded it.
Suspected poaching vessels that ply the high seas, which fall beyond national jurisdictions, have challenged efforts to clamp down on illegal fishing as they suffer from a lack of oversight, the commission has said.
The group said the vessel had no fishing licence and had been reported to Taiwan’s fisheries agency, although it did not receive a response.
“The Taiwanese government must order this illegal vessel to stop fishing and return to port immediately for a full and transparent investigation,” Toribau added.
Taiwanese officials were not immediately available to comment on the claims.
Tuvalu’s Elisala Pita, who heads the fisheries ministerial group at the forum, told Pacific representatives at the talks on Wednesday that most of the region’s tuna was being caught by foreign vessels, with “90 percent taken out of the region for processing.”
In response to the accusation, Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency said that the Shuen De Ching No. 888 had obtained permission to fish from the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) on May 22, but the WCPFC “forgot” to list the particular vessel on its official Web site, and the Fisheries Agency has also “forgotten” to register it on the WCPFC Web site.
Additional reporting by Loa Iok-sin
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