Transcript
BEN PONIA: Obviously the agreement comes into force and being an agreement on principle between the Cook Islands and the European Union that will be effective for eight years, and the protocol for access which runs for a term of four years, the next steps will be to engage that protocol and we already know from our negotiations that the European Union are intending access for four fishing vessels into our waters over this period.
DON WISEMAN: So when do you think these ships will arrive?
BP: So that's a matter of licensing procedures that we have to go through the vetting checks but assuming that we can move ahead quickly I could see this as a matter of months, perhaps.
DW: To what degree is there going to be servicing and interaction with crews and so on, within the Cook Islands?
BP: The purse seine fleet and this vessels will be part of that purse seine fleet that operate in our waters will have little interaction per se directly with any land base; they fish at least 50 kilometres offshore; they tend to do the majority of their offloading and refuelling and logistics from ports nearby, at American Samoa for example, and the next step to this whole fishery development is, of course, get more onshore opportunities for developing those economic activities.
DW: So, you are actively looking at cannery possibilities and this sort of thing.
BP: No I wouldn't say we are actively looking at cannery possibilities, I think as a first step there is an opportunity for some logistical support and having product being transhipped through our ports, some maintenance, net cleaning, replenishing food, crew being exchanged and so forth, but a cannery is highly unlikely for the Cook Islands with its limited population base and high cost investment.
DW: Now, this scheme has been highly controversial, there's been a lot of criticism locally, fences have to be mended, don't they? So, is any effort going to go into that?
BP: I think we have to continue our engagement with the community, I think to a certain degree there's been a lot of misinformation that's been propagated about this arrangement and in time the facts will reveal themselves as to what the real situation is, but this is an agreement and it's about developing long term opportunities for the Cook Islands utilisation of our larger ocean economic exclusive zone, additional economic diversification of our economy, development of our Northern Cook Islands which are remote and largely being exempt from a lot of the opportunities that tourism may offer down south, and in fact there will also be a matter by which we can divert revenue streams and interests into supporting our local fishermen who will be able to benefit on this arrangement.
DW: What's the impact on the marine reserve?
BP: If you are talking about our intentions to develop Marae Moana which is basically our EEZ managed zone, a zone where we are going apply principles and high levels of commitments to conservation. It's not a necessarily an approach where we will ban all commercial fishing or mining or what not. There's no inconsistency here, we feel as we are already doing we can move our fishery and our zone to achieving high levels of adherence to conservation principles. We are not a country that's interested in simply taking as much of the resource as possible. We are a small population and we can leave a fairly small footprint behind us.
