Three days in the high seas, and the Esperanza has already made some disturbing discoveries:
A black dot.
Peering through the binoculars, that's how the Taiwanese fishing vessel appeared - a black dot silhouetted against the horizon.
In the past few days, activities have been like tricks from a magician’s hat – you never know what the hand will pull out. Just yesterday, we fished out a banned fish aggregating device (FAD). Today, during a routine reconnaissance, we chanced upon two fishing boats transferring tuna from one to the another.
Her Hae and Jia Yu Fa, two Taiwanese longliners (pictured below) were caught RED-HANDED by the Esperanza trans-shipping in the high seas between Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). They had shark fins on-board as well.
As soon as they saw us, however, they stopped operations, hurriedly disengaged from each other and the larger of the two, Her Hae, sped off leaving the Jia Yu Fa bobbing in its wake.
Steaming at 13.5 knots, the powerful engines of the Esperanza were making the bridge door rattle and the whole ship hummed in pursued of the fishing boat.
Coming alongside the Jia Yu Fa, we delivered information about our campaign and questioned the crew about their fishing activities. The captain said they were transferring fish to the other ship because … they had a broken freezer. They also claimed to have a permit to transship at sea from the FSM authorities.
Upon checking, both fishing boats indeed had licences to fish. Her Hae had a licence under the WCPFC list and Jia Yu Fa, under FSM. However, under FSM’s fishing license conditions, as we discovered, trans-shipment at sea is NOT ALLOWED. Since this was the case, their activities were in fact illegal - Jia Yu Fa for transferring fish at sea against the rules of their fishing license, and Her Hae for receiving fish from a vessel that was not allowed to do so.
Having confirmed the illegality of this illegal activity at sea, the Esperanza peacefully escorted the Jia Yu Fa out of the high seas and into the waters of FSM, where they hold a license to fish and their activities can be properly monitored.
Trans-shipment at sea is but one fish hook on a long line of fishing woes for Pacific Islanders. Until the Tuna Commission starts listening to the Pacific nations’ request to close the high seas to all forms of fishing, this dubious practice will never stop. Trans-shipment at sea is stealing a precious resource from Pacific nations. Their lifeblood is sucked away with every illegal, unregulated and unreported tuna catch, not to mention the by-catch of sharks, sea turtles and other fish species that needlessly die in longline and purse seine fishing.
This was just our third day in the high seas and we’ve already found banned fish aggregating devices and witnessed one of the most elusive fishing activities -the illegal trans-shipment in international waters. Imagine what happens on the other 362 days of the year that go unchecked for this type of theft and plunder. How many Her Hae and Jia Yu Fa’s do we need to catch before the Tuna Commission, and the world, wakes up and acts?
When will it stop?
It’s not just a matter of strong political will on the part of the Pacific nations and the Tuna Commission to protect and replenish the tuna. This is a matter of urgency that everyone - every government, every fishing company, retailer, dealer, and every consumer - needs to act upon now. The Pacific tuna catch must be reduced by half, the high seas must be closed to all fishing and declared marine reserves, and FADs and transshipment at sea must be banned completely.
The time to end the plunder of Pacific tuna is now.
