Fishy plans in Vanuatu's Port Vila

Transcript

A Vanuatu businessman says a proposal to unload Chinese fishing vessels in the middle of Port Vila habour will have a negative impact on tourism and poses a threat to the environment.

The Manager of Total Marine Solutions, Peter Wederell told Jenny Meyer the situation is compounded by the ad hoc redevelopment of wharves in Port Vila used by local inter-island trading vessels.

PETER WEDERELL: It falls into two main categories. We've got the Chinese vessels and we've also got a redevelopment of the wharf that the local trading boats use which has not been particularly well handled and they're coming up with all sorts of ad hoc solutions for that.

JENNY MEYER: What's actually happening there with the Chinese, do they have a license to process their fish there in Port Vila?

PW: A fishing factory out at Blacksands area just out of town has remained inoperational because the fishing vessels have got nowhere to unload their catch so they put the cart before the horse and had a factory with no way of getting fish to it. And now in scrabbling desperation the company which is a joint venture between the Chinese government and Vanuatu have come up with a proposal to use two derelict coastal traders here which were built in China for the Vanuatu government to support a floating pontoon to unload these, up to forty, longliners that are supposed to be coming here.

JM: So how will that impact on tourism which I guess, apparently uses the same area does it, the same wharf?

PW: Correct. All the cruise ship passengers, which is Vanuatu's biggest tourism resource, they're going to have to walk past some stinking fish unloading and all the resultant mess that happens there. There's also the environmental side. The mooring system they're going to use for it, well it's hard to tell from their plans, I don't believe it's going to be adequate. I've got a fair amount of experience installing floating pontoons around the Pacific, and it's certainly not a small percentage of what I would consider adequate in the event of a cyclone.

JM: And there are also concerns about the upgrade of the total wharf infrastructure?

PW: The scope of the project is larger than what was originally anticipated. Apparently though they ran the risk of having the aid funding pulled if they hadn't got their act together and started some developments. So yet again the same thing, they hadn't thought of where vessels, local vessels were going to unload whilst this work on this wharf development was happening. So they now propose to bring a barge up from New Caledonia which is apparently derelict and totally unseaworthy, and moor it in Pontoon Bay on the west side of the main wharf. Which is about the only jewel in the crown of beaches in Port Vila. It's a beautiful unspoiled place, with the local boat yard there. It's where the locals and tourists, people come to swim. It's probably one of the only decent swimming beaches close to Port Vila and they want to stick a rusty barge in the middle of it.

JM: So how do imagine that this will actually play out there, what's happening right now with the whole situation in the port?

PW: Basically the various powers that be are telling everyone to pull their heads in and this is great for development. But they're not prepared to enter into any dialogue about it. There's actually a very simple solution for the local ships. The new wharf gets built first, the local ships go up there and the old wharf, Star Wharf gets redeveloped from there for the cruise ship terminal. But nobody seems to have come up with that easy solution yet or wants to hear about it.