Greenpeace is calling for no-fishing zones in international waters around Pacific Island countries, such as Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the Cook Islands. While one on level the call for the marine protected areas is fairly straightforward (to protect dwindling tuna stocks), another interesting reason for their call is to help counter illegal fishing in the region.
According to Greenpeace, some licensed vessels fishing within the territorial waters of these nations are avoiding landing fish in the ports of these island nations by off loading their catch on “mother ships” in international waters and thus contributing to an underreporting of the catch. Underreporting the catch of tuna undermines management efforts of fishery management bodies.
In addition to this underreporting, the transshipment of catch also hurts the island nations economically. Tuna fleets negotiate access agreements with Pacific Island nations in order to fish in their sovereign waters. When the fee for this access agreement is based on reported and landed catch, one can see how the illegal transshipment of catch in international waters will mean less economic benefit to these nations.
According to Greenpeace:
the Pacific Ocean provided 60 per cent of the world’s tuna supplies but only about 6 per cent of the industry’s profits went back to Pacific island nations through agreements such as access fees.
Oceans and Communities fully supports this call for no-fishing zones, not only to protect marine species but also to protect coastal communities that rely on healthy marine resources to feed their families.
