A US$150 million Chinese-built fishery plant planned for an island in Papua New Guinea (PNG) could allow Chinese-backed commercial vessels to fish legally in the Torres Strait, and has raised concerns over unregulated fishing in the same waters, potentially threatening the Australian industry and local PNG fishers.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce this month announced a 527 million kina (US$149.96 million) deal to establish a “comprehensive multi-functional fishery industrial park” project on Daru Island, in PNG’s Western Province.
The memorandum of understanding, which offered little detail, was signed by the Fujian Zhonghong Fishery Co, PNG Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources Lino Tom and Western Province Governor Taboi Yoto.
The plant is expected to serve as a hub for fishing vessels coming into the region, and to process catches taken from the Torres Strait.
Under the Torres Strait Treaty, Australia and PNG are allowed to fish a shared area of the waters known as the Protected Zone, which straddles the fishing zones of the two countries.
Inside Australia’s zone, PNG boats can take 25 percent of the permitted tropical lobster catch and 40 percent of the permitted Spanish mackerel catch.
To date, PNG has not had the capacity to commercially fish its share of these quotas, but the deal could attract Chinese funding for PNG-flagged vessels.
Warren Entsch, the Australian lawmaker for the north Queensland electorate of Leichhardt, said: “It’s certainly going to impact on our side of the fishery, but at the end of the day, there is a treaty arrangement there.”
“The biggest losers are going to be the treaty villages [of PNG’s Western Province]. They have no welfare system and bugger-all support from the PNG government,” Entsch said. “When they go out to fish to feed their families, there’s going to be nothing left.”
The Fuzhou-based Fujian Zhonghong Fishery Co, established in 2011, has a long involvement with PNG, mainly in fishing and seafood processing.
However, Entsch said that he has concerns over China’s track record.
“You only have to look at what China has done in other places in the Pacific to ask the question of whose best interest it is in,” he said. “Is it in the best interest of the broader PNG community? I suspect not.”
Chinese Ambassador to Papua New Guinea Xue Bing (薛冰) said that Fujian Zhonghong Fishery’s investment “will definitely enhance PNG’s ability to comprehensively develop and utilize its own fishery resources.”
The company did not respond to a request for comment.
At their closest point, PNG and Australia are separated by less than 4km of water. The border communities are deeply intertwined, with free movement between islands and a close sharing of resources.
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