Ratification of global fisheries agreement a positive step

The Mari­time Uni­on says the rat­i­fic­a­tion of a new glob­al fish­er­ies agree­ment by the New Zea­l­and Gov­ern­ment is pos­it­ive news.

The Food and Agri­cul­ture Organ­iz­a­tion of the United Nations Port State Meas­ures Agree­ment is designed to fight illeg­al, unreg­u­lated and unre­por­ted (IUU) fish­ing.

Mari­time Uni­on Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Joe Fleet­wood says New Zea­l­and still has a long way to go to fix sys­tem­ic prob­lems in the fish­ing sec­tor.

“The con­sist­ent theme is that illeg­al fish­ing is often linked to exploit­a­tion of crew mem­bers and oth­er abuses.”

He says the full enforce­ment of cur­rent laws and reg­u­la­tions was still required.

New Zea­l­and is the ninth coun­try to rat­i­fy the agree­ment, which requires 25 rat­i­fic­a­tions to come into force.

Des­pite the Gov­ern­ment announce­ment in 2012 that For­eign Charter Ves­sels (FCVs) in New Zea­l­and waters would have to be reflagged to the New Zea­l­and flag by 2016, bring­ing them under the full range of New Zea­l­and law, there have been ongo­ing prob­lems in the industry.

Recent examples include a ser­i­ous injury to a New Zea­l­and Gov­ern­ment observ­er on a FCV res­ult­ing in the ampu­ta­tion of an arm in Janu­ary this year, and raids by author­it­ies on FCVs in Timaru for sus­pec­ted illeg­al activ­ity in 2013.

Two FCVs with his­tor­ies of crew prob­lems have incurred sub­stan­tial costs to the tax­pay­er after being seized by author­it­ies in Duned­in for illeg­al fish­ing.

“New Zea­l­and is a mari­time nation and we depend on the ocean for our live­li­hood. We must treat it and those who work on it with respect and care,” says Mr Fleet­wood.