A big focus of this year’s Pacific Forum is to put a line in the sand on illegal fishing.
New Zealand has just announced it is committing $50 million over the next three years towards protecting fisheries in the region – an extra boost of $10 million.
Pacific leaders are desperate to stop the illegal plundering of fish in their region, which Kiribati president Anote Tong says is very significant.
“We have some very isolated pockets of our zone which nobody can adequately police,” he said.
Their economic survival depends on it. Sixty percent of the world’s tuna stocks is caught in the Pacific which is why island leaders are planning to crack down on illegal fishing.
“Foreign countries and companies are coming in here and poaching and we think that is in the order of about four to five hundred million dollars of illegal fishing,” said Prime Minister John Key in Rarotonga for the Pacific Forum.
New Zealand is looking to share its sophisticated tracking technology with its neighbours to catch those poachers.
In another move, the Cook Islands, Niue and Kiribati signed an agreement defining their borders.
Ben Ponia of Cooks Islands Marine Resources said: “That’s quite significant because we can now say to foreign vessels that cross over that line ‘you are in our waters’ whereas previously there could be some judicial dispute over where the actual boundary lay.”
The Cook Islands can issue up to 70 licences, but it recently signed a partnership with Luen Thai, a company which in the past has been accused of unlawful working conditions and illegal fishing.
Ponia was asked if it concerns him that the Luen Thai director is an advisor to Marine Resources
“The minister is free to choose who he wants to take his advice from,” Ponia replied.
But Cook Islands officials say should any of their fishing partners break the rules, their relationship will be over.
“They have to fish responsible if they’re going to fish in our waters,” Ponia said.
Pacific leaders hope taking action against those who do not will help make a difference.
2012, Television New Zealand Limited