No place for tuna to hide

Nilesh Goundar, The Fiji Times 14 May 08;

THERE are far less tuna in the sea than there used to be.

What we see now is tuna being pursued with more sophisticated technology and there really is no place for fish to hide any longer.

That is the observation of Callum Roberts, Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of York in the United Kingdom.

Dire words of warning by the Pacific's very own marine scientists are still not being heeded by those responsible for managing the region's valuable tuna resource.

So Greenpeace is defending pockets of international waters in the Pacific in a bid to have them declared marine reserves and off limits to greedy tuna fishers. Our activities at sea have already seen four foreign fishing vessels leave the area that Greenpeace is defending.

Colloquially known as "donut holes", "high seas pockets" or "Pacific Commons", these areas of international waters belong to everyone.

There are three distinct donut holes in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) that should be made into marine reserves.

They have great ecological importance and face a number of threats, including overfishing and potentially mining.

They are entirely bound by the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of the surrounding island nations Papua New Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia and the Cook Islands.

What's a donut hole

Well, a donut hole is an ungoverned space surrounded by waters of Pacific Island states.

A cleverly positioned vessel fishing illegally in a Pacific Island country's waters could slip into a donut hole every time a surveillance vessel or plane came by and would not have to pay a single cent to Pacific Islanders.

Tuna has given the Pacific people food, jobs, education, roads, health care and life, and now faces an imminent crisis.

Since 2001, Pacific fisheries scientists have been warning that strong measures are needed to conserve tuna stocks.

Despite these warnings, over-fishing and destructive fishing methods continue to threaten the Pacific's fragile ocean environment and the tuna that depend on it.

Today, more than half the world's tuna is fished from the Pacific.

Too many ships are fishing for too few fish and bigeye and yellowfin tuna stocks are under threat.

While over-fishing continues, the best distant water fishing nations can manage is to haggle over the science!

Many boats fish without observers on board, satellites can't weigh the fish in the holds, and many island governments only have one patrol boat to cover a huge area of ocean.

Marine reserves tabu ocean zones

Marine reserves are highly protected areas which are off-limit to activities such as fishing and mining.

They are the most powerful tool available for the conservation of ocean life.

Marine reserves protect breeding areas, ocean habitats and fish that have been targeted by unsustainable fishing.

The three marine reserves Greenpeace has proposed cover extensive areas that include biologically rich undersea mountains, migration routes of tuna species, habitat of endangered leatherback turtles and breeding areas of skipjack, albacore and bigeye tuna.

About 75 per cent of the world's fisheries are exploited up to and beyond the point where they can be regarded as sustainable.

According to global fisheries expert Dr Daniel Pauly, in the future people will be eating jellyfish, because that is all that will be left, unless we act now.

Since early April, Greenpeace activists on board the MV Esperanza have been defending the Pacific Commons.

Lately, five Pacific Islanders joined the crew to challenge fishing vessels in the Pacific donut holes and defend them as no-take marine reserves.

These intrepid oceans defenders have found eight industrial fishing vessels, all from foreign countries, contributing to the overfishing of the Pacific's yellowfin and bigeye tuna.

On April 17, The Olympus owned by Korea's largest tuna company, Dongwon Industries Co. Ltd, a significant global player in the tuna industry was told by Esperanza's ocean defenders to leave the Pacific Commons immediately.

The same day, activists confiscated a device used by purse seiners to attract tuna and intensify overfishing called a "fish aggregation device" (FAD).

On April 21, the ocean defenders, at the invitation of the captain, boarded the Taiwanese vessel Nian Sheng 3 when it was found in international waters.

The Esperanza's crew then peacefully escorted the vessel out of the Pacific Commons and into Solomon Islands waters where the Taiwanese vessel had a license to fish.

Three days later, the Ocean defenders took action against the US purse seiner, Cape Finisterre, in the Pacific Commons.

Purse seiners are responsible for two-thirds of the total tuna catch in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.

The ocean defenders painted the side of the vessel with the words Tuna overkill' and held a banner reading Marine reserves now'.

The fishing vessel was asked to leave the area immediately. Just last weekend, north of the the Solomon Islands, Greenpeace ocean defenders freed sharks, tuna, marlin and an endangered Olive Ridley turtle from the hooks of a Taiwanese longline vessel fishing in the Pacific Commons.

We encountered the Taiwanese longliner, Ho Tsai Fa 18, while it was hauling tens of kilometres of fishing line. This vessel has a record of a controversial landing of shark fins.

The activists asked the captain to release all marine life hooked on the lines and painted Pirate' on the hull of the ship. Large foreign companies which are major players in the Pacific tuna industry own ships such as the Ho Tsai Fa 18.

Their uncontrolled fishing activities are destroying tuna stocks by overfishing and killing large numbers of other marine life with their destructive fishing methods. But the action did not stop in the Pacific Commons; it even went as far as Brussels.

There, at the European Seafood Exposition, the future of Pacific and international tuna was vigorously defended by 80 Greenpeace ocean defenders from 15 countries.

The Greenpeace activists closed the stands of five large tuna suppliers in a bid to save Pacific tuna stocks.

They covered the stands with fishing nets, chained themselves to the stands and put up banners in 13 languages saying: Time and tuna running out'.

A message was broadcast through the exhibition halls urging visitors to buy only sustainably caught seafood.

Greenpeace called on the fishing companies to stop trading in threatened bluefin, yellowfin and bigeye tuna and other unsustainably caught tuna until stocks recover.

Among these companies are the major Pacific tuna players Dongwon industries, Dongwon F&B, Mitsubishi and Moon Marine.

If the industry does not shift toward sustainable seafood there will simply be no tuna left to trade and their businesses will be closed forever.

The Pacific supplies about 60 per cent of the world's tuna, worth more than $US3billion. Pacific nations are being ripped off.

They only receive 5-6 per cent of the value of the catch caught by foreign vessels in their national waters.

This is because of the unfair and unsustainable agreements negotiated by foreign companies and countries for access to fish for tuna in their waters.

It's do or die for Pacific tuna stocks and Pacific Islanders need to come together as they did at the 2007 Pacific Island Forum leaders meeting and move toward halving their catch and become instrumental in turning the Pacific Commons into marine reserves.

Turning the tide

The people of the Pacific have the right to say how our precious marine resources will be managed.

It is time to stop our resources from being stolen with minimal or no benefit to island nations.

We must stand together and support the call for new marine reserves in the Pacific commons areas and an easy way to get involved is to enter the Greenpeace competition to give these significant areas a name.

Anyone can enter the competition just send your inspiring name for any of the three areas and say why you have chosen that name for our Pacific heritage.

Entries can be posted to Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Private Mail Bag, Suva or email: greenpeace@connect.com.fj

Nilesh Goundar is the Greenpeace Australia Pacific oceans team leader.