Greenpeace and FSM Government challenge illegal fishing in the Pacific

Of the suspicious vessels found in the in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) (2) of FSM, 80% were fishing with apparently "faulty" reporting systems.  Not reporting means there is no way of knowing how long boats stay out to sea for, nor how much or what they catch. Vessel monitoring is the backbone of effective patrol and surveillance. Serious problems with the current vessel monitoring system (VMS), made it impossible to determine whether the boats knew they were reporting to the coastguard or not.

“Over the last fortnight, we have had first-hand experience of how difficult it is for Pacific Island Countries to monitor and control their waters, their
limited resources are completely overstretched” said Lagi Toribau, Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner onboard the Esperanza.

“The sheer size of the Pacific, which covers more than a third of the world, and the ever increasing number of foreign fishing boats in the region already makes enforcement a real challenge. When you add to this the serious problems with the current VMS system and the limited resources available; you can see why the Pacific is such a hotspot for illegal activity.

“Two key Pacific tuna species are already in big trouble and, unless we see a
drastic cut in fishing rates, they will be severely depleted within three years. Distant foreign nations take nearly all our fish, giving Pacific nations a pitiful 5% of the USD $2 billion the fish is worth annually. It is the responsibility of these nations, to control the fishing boats registered to them, to give fairer returns for their licences, and to contribute more to the battle against all forms of pirate fishing.” continued Toribau.

Greenpeace will be taking all the findings gathered to the technical compliance committee meeting of the regional Tuna Commission (Western and Central Fisheries Commission) in Brisbane, later this month. Greenpeace will call on the Tuna Commission to adopt the solutions to the Pacific tuna fisheries crisis, made in a science report released in August of this year.

The FSM Secretary of Justice, Marstella Jack commented “The department is enthusiastic about this innovative collaboration between government and a
non-governmental organisation. By combining our resources and expertise we were able to carry out enforcement activities we could not have accomplished on our own. I think that both Greenpeace and the Department of Justice have learned a lot and made good progress in our respective efforts to combat illegal fishing. "I hope we can find other opportunities to work together.”

Lagi Toribau continued: “People in these far off nations including; Japan, US, EU, Korea and Taiwan, don’t know that they may be eating tuna stolen from people whose lives depend on it. Governments must act now to regulate their ships, we as consumers must start questioning where our fish comes from, and retailers must refuse to stock stolen fish.”

Pirates are the scourge of the oceans, they steal up to USD $9 billion worth of fish a year from some of the world’s poorest people. The DOO tour has already confronted pirate fishing in West Africa, and Greenpeace’s sister ship the Arctic Sunrise is currently challenging illegal fishing in the North and Baltic Seas.

Greenpeace is calling on the Tuna Commission, and all member countries to take immediate action on all their registered boats found acting illegally, and for an introduction of stricter controls on VMS. If a VMS system does not work then a vessel’s license must automatically be revoked until it’s fixed. If a ship is found to be acting illegally or misreporting, it must immediately be banned from fishing in the Pacific again.

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.

ENDS