An African fisherman and anti-trawling activist says a super trawler that’s headed for Australia has been overfishing the waters around Mauritania.
The Dutch owned Margiris is being brought to Devonport in Northern Tasmania and will work in a fishery that stretches all the way from southern Queensland around to Western Australia.
If approval is given by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority the 142 metre Margiris will be the largest fishing boat to work in Australia.
Felicity Ogilvie reports from Hobart.
FELICITY OGILVIE: Harouna Ismael Lebaye says he can remember a time when there were so many fish in his country of Mauritania that wild dolphins would chase the fish into his nets.
HAROUNA ISMAEL LEBAYE (translated): We used to not need to go far offshore to catch a lot of fish. All we needed to do was to hit the water with a stick for about 20 minutes and then we would throw some nets in the water and then we would wait for the dolphins to come back to up the coast and they would bring a lot of fish with them together.
The dolphins still come but they don’t bring fish with them because there are no fish anymore.
FELICITY OGILVIE: Mr Lebaye blames the changes in his fishery on the international trawlers that are fishing in the waters off Mauritania.
The fisherman is now also working as an anti-trawling activist.
The Dutch owned Margiris isn’t the only ship fishing in Mauritania but Mr Lebaye says the super trawler is taking too many fish.
HAROUNA ISMAEL LEBAYE (translated): I am talking to you as a fisherman based in Nouadhibou. But I actually come from Nouakchott the capital but I had to move from there to Nouadhibou because there was no fish left in Nouakchott. So this is a direct consequence of overfishing of the Margiris.
FELICITY OGILVIE: The owners of the Margiris, the P&P group, say the super trawler only took its quota of fish.
The P&P group referred AM to the Pelagic Freezer-Trawler Association who prepared this statement:
EXTRACT OF A STATEMENT FROM THE PELAGIC FREEZER-TRAWLER ASSOCIATION: Some vessels, including the Margiris, have been active in Mauritanian waters since the mid 1990s, fishing for small pelagic species under successive fishing partnership agreements between the European Union and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.
Fishing in Mauritania has always been under annual quota agreed between the EU and Mauritania and strictly controlled by the EU and Mauritania.
When the agreed quota is fully used, fishing stops.
FELICITY OGILVIE: The company Seafish Tasmania plans to use the super trawler to take 18,000 tonnes of fish like mackerel and redbait from Australian waters. Seafish Tasmania plans to sell the fish to markets in Asia and Africa.
The Mauritanian fisherman and anti-trawling activist Harouna Ismael Lebaye has this message for Tasmanian fishermen:
HAROUNA ISMAEL LEBAYE (translated): I’m calling out to the Tasmanian fishermen to get together and to denounce the plundering of the Margiris that has already happened in other waters so that this will not happen in Tasmanian waters.
FELICITY OGILVIE: Hundreds of recreational fishermen have already taken to the streets in Tasmania to protest against the super trawler.
Seafish Tasmania says it’s committed to sustainable fishing and says it won’t overfish.
2010 ABC