International & Trade

February 24, 2015 — Several organizations have come out in support of the recommendation by the White House task force on illegal fishing that foreign governments end fishery subsidies by 2020, Samoa News reported.

The article noted that several fisheries groups have been supportive of subsidy reform, including the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, Tri Marine, Oceana, the West Coast Seafood Processors Association and the Pew Charitable Trusts Foundation.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

February 25, 2015 — The Southeast Asian nation responded by launching a major public relations campaign, with the government drafting its own country assessment to highlight steps taken to clean up the industry since a military junta took control of Thailand in May. The unreleased Thai report, obtained by The Associated Press, includes establishing a new national registry of illegal migrant workers and plans for stricter labor regulations on vessels and in the seafood industry.

However, just a month after the new government stepped in, Thailand was the only country in the world to vote against a U.N. international treaty aimed at stopping forced labor.

"If you drill down, if you look at the substance of enforcement and the implementation of existing laws and regulations, it's minimal," said Steve Trent, the group's executive director. "What the Thai government seems to do repeatedly, again and again in the face of these accusations, is conduct a high-powered PR exercise rather than seek to address the problem."

A Thai government spokesman and officials at the Department of Fisheries did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' requests for comment.

Thailand, which exported $7 billion in seafood in 2013, is one of the biggest suppliers to the U.S. But a study published last year in the journal Marine Policy estimated 25 percent to 40 percent of tuna shipped from Thailand to America is from illegal or unreported sources — the highest rate of any species or country examined — and is frequently linked to labor abuses at sea.

Human rights advocates say some improvements have been noted in domestic waters, but such policies have little impact when vessels stray into the territorial waters of other countries. Traveling longer distances to catch fish raises operating costs, and increases pressure on fishing companies to save money by relying on forced, bonded and slave labor.

"On long-haul boats, nothing has changed in the brutal working conditions and physical abuse meted out by captains against their crews," said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, who has worked extensively on the issue. "The reality is the Thai government's high-sounding rhetoric to stop human trafficking and clean up the fishing fleets still largely stops at the water's edge."

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

February 25, 2015 — Thailand's fishing sector has a long line of troubles. The country is the world's third-largest seafood exporter, yet its waters are almost out of fish.

Its fleet is facing strong criticism for using slave labour and it is at risk of getting a "yellow card" from the European Union (EU).  The government is scrambling to correct this.

A long-overdue update of a law dating back to 1948 covering its fisheries sector may signal a turning point.

Under the new law, the department of fisheries will have the power to board and inspect fishing vessels in Thai territory – something it did not have before.

Vessels will be tracked via Global Positioning System technology and crews checked for forced labour.  Driving this is a flood of recent reports exposing the industry's myriad problems.

Labour trafficking in the sector – in which around 70 per cent of workers are foreigners, mostly from Myanmar – was one reason why the United States Department of State in its annual Trafficking in Persons report last year downgraded Thailand to the lowest Tier 3, a ranking that could draw sanctions.

The EU could issue a "yellow card" – a warning that a country must ensure fishes are legally caught in compliance with EU certification requirements.

Read the full story here

February 24, 2014 — It is hoped the pilot of a new scheme to help countries in the Polynesian Leadership Group monitor and control illegal fishing should be in place in weeks.

The leaders from Niue, Tonga, Samoa, French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, Tuvalu and Tokelau believe satellite technology will give them the information they need to properly manage their fisheries.

They have contracted the Pew Charitable Trust and Satellite Applications Catapult to set up the Eyes on the Sea project for a six month pilot.
Pew's Bronwen Golder told Don Wiseman what this satellite technolgy will do.

BRONWEN GOLDER: It will provide a comprehensive surveillance of the Polynesian Leaders' Group. It will be able to identify the presence and behaviour of fishing vessels and then based on information and data that is available it will be able to determine what of that activity is legal and it will also identify vessels that are there that shouldn't be there.

DON WISEMAN: So it will know which vessels are which:?

BG: Well you can because you have information of the vessels that a country has licensed to fish within its waters, and so with that information and information that is transmitted from the vessels you are able to match them up or not, so if you find evidence of vessels that are not on a country's register as having a fishing licence to be there, then obviously they are there illegally.   

DW: In terms of any response to this illegal activity, that is up to the countries concerned. It is not part of the project?

BG: No but the data that is collected is provided to the countries to then take action, either within their national legislation and decision making or within the decision making of the larger regional bodies. So already you have an agency like the FFA [ Forum Fisheries Agency] which is doing monitoring activity of vessels across this area, what Eyes on the Sea does is really complement and extend that surveillance to add new data sets and new capabilities, so that we can just reinforce and strengthen the work that is being done.

Read the full story and listen to the audio at Radio New Zealand International

February 18, 2015 — From dog attacks, strangulation and rape, to injured fishermen being thrown overboard and left to drown, trafficked people can suffer extreme violence and severe health problems no matter where they end up working, researchers have found.

In the largest ever study into the health of trafficking victims, researchers interviewed more than 1,100 men, women and children in Southeast Asia who had been trafficked into at least 15 sectors – including factory work, domestic labour, sex work and fishing.

"While we all hear about the horrors of human trafficking, when you get the statistical findings like this, it tells you that these nightmares are not isolated cases or necessarily the worst of the stories that get told," Cathy Zimmerman, one of the researchers, said in an interview.

Most previous studies looked at the health of women trafficked into sex work.

What this study found was that women trafficked for other forms of labour, including factory work, domestic work and as brides, suffered worse mental health problems than those trafficked into sex work.

Read the full story at Reuters

February 4, 2015 — The following was released by the Wildlife Conservation Society:

The Government of Madagascar has created the country’s first marine sanctuary for sharks as part of a new law to safeguard the country’s marine resources and the communities that rely on them, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

At a February 2nd press conference held in Antananarivo, Madagascar, the Malagasy government announced the initiation of a new law that establishes a shark sanctuary in Antongil Bay while granting coastal communities exclusive use and management rights for local fishing areas. The new law also restricts international fishing boats from fishing in Antongil Bay, a 1,446-square-mile body of water slightly larger than Long Island Sound.

“With the support from Wildlife Conservation Society, we chose a participatory and collaborative approach for the development of this law and management plan and we opted for the search for a balance between fishing activities and ecological integrity to ensure rational and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources” said Mr. Ahmad, Minister of Marine Resources and Fisheries at the press conference in Antananarivo.
 
“Long-term strategic alliances and partnerships forged with local communities, government agencies such as the Ministry of Marine Resources and Fisheries, and stakeholders during two decades of field presence of WCS investing in wildlife protection and sustainable natural resources management in Antongil Bay is key to this success,” said Alison Clausen, Country Director of WCS’s Madagascar Program. “WCS looks forward to working with the Government of Madagascar to implement this new pilot fisheries co-management initiative in Antongil Bay and promote its replication to other sites.”
 
The WCS Madagascar Program works throughout Madagascar to ensure the long-term conservation of the country’s unique biological diversity with a focus on activities in Antongil Bay and other priority landscape/seascapes such as Makira Natural Park, Masoala National Park, Antongil Bay, Nosy Be seascape and the Toliara seascape.
 
The new shark sanctuary is home to 19 species of shark, a third of which (including the great hammerhead shark and the zebra shark) have become severely threatened by unregulated fishing. The new law legally empowers local communities to manage nearshore fishing grounds through a growing network of locally managed marine areas (LMMAs), 25 of which have already been established with the support of WCS. The regulations of these areas—including no-take marine reserves and temporary closures—are locally designed and enforced. By securing management and use rights of LMMAs for local communities for the first time in Madagascar, the law aims to transform marine resources from open access areas that typically result in short-term exploitation at the expense of long-term sustainability to exclusive access for local fishers who can garner the benefits of managing their own marine resources.
 
The law also establishes collaborative arrangements between artisanal and industrial fishers, civil society, and government to work together on the sustainable management of fisheries in Antongil Bay.
 
Madagascar’s local fisheries provide livelihoods and food security for hundreds of thousands of some of the poorest coastal communities in the world. The new law will facilitate a system of co-management between communities, fishers, and government to manage their local fish populations.
 
The regulatory changes build on previous initiatives to decentralize the management of marine resources and establish local fisheries management plans and collaborative management arrangements.  At the 2014 IUCN World Parks Congress, his Excellency Hery Rajaonarimampianina, President of Madagascar, noted that Madagascar “already [has] positive models of locally managed marine areas, of which Madagascar is proud to be a pioneer in the Western Indian Ocean region.” He emphasized his commitment “to establish legal and regulatory frameworks for community management of marine and coastal resources.”
 
Venor Rason, a local fisher and President of the community association managing the LMMA of Analanjahana in the southern part of Antongil Bay said : “We are very pleased to hear that this new law that we helped develop has been released. It will help us manage sustainably our marine resources by limiting the number of small-scale and industrial fishers allowed to fish in the bay and by delivering fishing licenses to local professional fishers.”

Dr. Ambroise Brenier, Marine Technical Director of WCS’s Madagascar Program, said: “This pilot initiative will reduce coral reef degradation, improve abundance of endangered species of sharks, and sustain fisheries yields with long-term livelihoods and food security benefits thanks to restored fish stocks potentially reaching 100,000 coastal inhabitants living around Antongil Bay.”
 
WCS’s field work in Madagascar, which helped inform the decisions to create this shark sanctuary and to grant coastal communities exclusive use and management rights for local fishing areas, was supported by The Helmsley Charitable Trust, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and other generous partners.

 

 

February 11, 2015 — A political tsunami is building in the South Pacific over the growing presence of Chinese fishing boats.

More than 1300 heavily subsidised Chinese boats are now licensed in the region with plans for a further 300 this year.

Fishing with long-lines, many are targeting albacore tuna with some set to take over the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of the Cook Islands and Samoa.

"I call it marine genocide, something needs to be done about it soon," Samoa fish exporter and expatriate New Zealander John Luff said.

Alarm over the expanded Chinese fleet was part of the logic for New Zealand appointing former Labour MP Shane Jones as an ambassador to the region, but Pacific countries appear to be indifferent to Wellington's warnings.

In Rarotonga politicians are actively working to exclude New Zealand fishing operations, preferring the Chinese.

Sources were shocked even though a year ago diplomatic dispatches were pointing to China's openly declared plan to increase its deep-water fishing fleet to more than 2300 boats.

Luff said they have been told two long-liners were about to arrive in Samoa's 129,000 square-kilometre EEZ, the Pacific's smallest. They've also been told they will be allowed to operate inside the smaller territorial waters.

"It is outrageous for this approval to get done," he said.

Read the full story here

February 11, 2015 — Scallop fishers, policy managers, and scientists, from the UK and France are meeting to develop a regional management plan for the economically vital scallop Channel fishery.

Building on progress made at a GAP2 Project workshop held in Brixham, Devon, in April 2014, a second gathering of fishers, scientists, policy-makers, NGOs and retail/processing representatives will take place in Port en Bessin, Normandy, France on the 11 and 12 February, 2015.

Putting the ‘scallop wars’ behind them, industry leaders and others with a stake in this valuable fishery will now seek to develop concrete plans to build a sustainable, profitable future for scallop fishing in the Channel.

Key themes of discussion for the event will include: improving data for the fishery, harmonising technical measures, and market-based discussions to build understanding on both sides of the Channel.

The neutrally facilitated event will strengthen collaboration between French and UK counterparts, which will be key to building a successful regional management plan, as explained by Giles Bartlett, WWF UK.

Read the full story from The Fish Site

 

February 11, 2015 — As families around China prepare for Lunar New Year celebrations next week, shoppers in one southeastern city can add another delicacy to their shopping list: “patriotic fish.”

Photos of shoppers in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, thronging around cases of frozen fish and sea urchins circulated in China on Wednesday. This was no ordinary seafood, however. It was from Mischief Reef, which has been controlled by China since 1994 but is part of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea also claimed by the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

“You can steam it, make soup, braise, slice or fry it — it’s all possible!” Lin Zailiang, 82, a former government official who heads the fish-farming program, told the gathered shoppers. Behind him, a blue billboard advertised the products as “South China Sea ‘Patriotic Fish’ — the Third Season.” The entire 8,300 pounds of seafood sold out in two hours, according to the state-run China News Service.

But Mr. Lin, white-haired and wearing a garland of orchids around his neck, also made it clear that the program was about more than just providing delicacies for the table.

Cultivating fish at Mischief Reef, called Meiji Reef by the Chinese, is equivalent to “safeguarding national sovereignty,” Mr. Lin was quoted as saying. “Because once there are residents there — us — it becomes our territory, according to international ocean law.”

Read the full story from The New York Times

 

February 10, 2015 — The United States has removed South Korea from its preliminary list of illegal fishing countries, the government said Tuesday.

"The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has published its final report that said it was removing its preliminary designation of (South Korea) as an illegal fishing nation," the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said in a press release.

South Korea was put on the list that names nations for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in 2013.

The European Union has also designated South Korea as an IUU country and is expected to publish its final list soon.

The ministry hopes the European Union will follow suit.

South Korea has taken a series of measures aimed at curbing pirate fishing by its vessels in far seas after the designations.

Read the full story here