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.
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