Local Cook Islands fishermen wary of new tuna agreement

Transcript

Purse Seine fishing Photo: Supplied

There continues to be widespread opposition to purse seining fleets fishing in Cook Islands waters, despite the government hailing its latest fishing negotiations as the best deal yet.

It's been recently revealed that the Ministry of Marine Resources has entered into a draft agreement with the European Union that will allow more purse seiners into  Cook Islands waters.

Leilani Momoisea reports.

The Cooks Islands Marine Resources Secretary Ben Ponia says a new US$13 million fishing deal with the European Union is the best package so far for any fishing arrangement. He says the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement, which allows in Spanish purse seiners, will bring in nearly 12 and a half thousand US dollars for every day one of the vessels fishes in Cook Islands waters. The president of the Cook Islands Fishing Association, Don Beer, says most members practice subsistence fishing, going out in small boats or canoes, and trawling for fish. He says they have noticed a decline in fish catch over the years. Mr Beer says they are aware the Spanish purse seiners will be targetting skipjack tuna, which has a healthy population. But he says members are worried about the impact on bigeye and yellowfin tuna, which local fishermen rely heavily on.

DON BEER: Obviously with purse seining, the big area we're worried about is the bycatch of bigeye tuna. It's a huge, huge, worry. How do we manage that? And of course the latest is the Spaniards want to use fish aggregation devices, in terms of the association, we don't favour FADs at all.

The technical director for the environmental NGO, Te Ipukarea Society, Kelvin Passfield, echoes that worry, saying the Spanish purse seine fleet has the worst reputation for using fish aggregation devices. He says he can't understand why the government has been so weak in its negotiations, and didn't insist on banning FADs.

KELVIN PASSFIELD: The impact on the potential future livelihood of Cook Islanders and other Pacific Island countries of these foreign fishing countries taking out such a huge quantity of our fish, and not really paying a reasonable amount for it, well no money would be a reasonable amount if you're going to basically wipe out the stocks of bigeye. So no, it's not worth it at all.

Earlier this year about 4,000 people, or half the voting population, signed a petition asking the government to ban purse seiners. Some locals feel the government should have dealt with the petition before pursuing more purse seining agreements. Our correspondent, Florence Syme-Buchanan, says the fact the government continued negotiating with the EU has come as a surprise to a lot of people. She says there is also a lot of concern regarding the contents of the draft agreement.

FLORENCE SYME-BUCHANAN: Mr Ponia talks a figure of 7,000 tonnes a year, but the fact of the matter is there is a clause within that agreement that allows the Spanish purse seiners to exceed that tonnage. There's also mention of experimental fishing, Mr Ponia hasn't mentioned any of this in any of the public releases that have been made by his department.

Ben Ponia has told local media that as part of the agreement a portion of the finances will go towards supporting the marine sector. He says as part of this he will ask cabinet to support a fuel subsidy for local fishermen. Don Beer says members of the Cook Islands Fishing Association are split over the draft agreement.

DON BEER: We've got half of our members which see the benefits of getting some sort of return from the licence scheme. In a year, under the government scheme we'd get about $200,000 which basically goes back to the Fishing Association to help them develop their own fishery. But at the same time I guess what we are concerned about is just making sure that the resource is going to be there for future generations.

Ben Ponia says it's important to realise that if the Cook Islands does not utilise its fair share of 1,250 fishing days, it runs the risk of the Tuna Commission reassigning those days to other Pacific countries. He says the level of fishing access the EU has asked for is equivalent to only 125 fishing days.