Pacific Island Governments should call on Japan and other Distant Water Fishing nations (DWNFS) to immediately pay US$400 million to prevent the overfishing of tuna, said Greenpeace Australia Pacific Oceans Team leader, Nilesh Goundar.
Mr. Goundar made the comments in light of revelations in a report published by the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin tuna, which found Japan had illegally caught up to US$6billion worth of tuna over the past 20 years.
“If this is happening in the Southern Ocean imagine what is going on in the Pacific and around the world,†he said.
Mr. Goundar said it is estimated that in the Pacific region pirates take up to four times in license fees and globally pirates steal up to US$9 billion worth of fish a year.
“Even where foreign fishing fleets pay in return for access to a Pacific country’s fishing grounds, the financial returns from these access fees and licenses are worth a pittance of the total value of fish caught, often being a mere five per cent of the US$2 billion that the fish is worth when it reaches the international market,†he said.
Mr. Goundar said Pacific Island Governments must not allow foreign industrial fishing nations like Japan to hoodwink them into plundering their oceans.
“The 20 Pacific Island countries rely upon their oceans as a crucial economic resource as tuna fisheries make up to 40 per cent of GDP for some states and is the primary protein source in their diet,†he said.
Greenpeace has recently launched a science report highlighting the conservation and management of Bigeye and Yellowfin tuna, which is now in a critically over fished state in the Pacific.
Source: Greenpeace Press Release