Greenpeace activists on board the Rainbow Warrior are trying to stop a Vanuatu-flagged vessel from leaving a Taiwanese port.
The ocean campaigners want the Taiwanese government to use its own laws to stop the MV Lung Yuin from returning to the Pacific.
Activist Sari Tolvanen told Alexandra Wake of radio Australia it’s all part of a campaign to focus international attention on the overfishing of big eye and yellow fin tuna.
Presenter: Alexandra Wake Speaker: Sari Tolvanen, Greenpeace Activist
TOLVANEN: We have just taken direct action to stop a suspected illegal fish carrier, the MV Lung Yuin, from leaving the port and return to the Pacific. So we have an activist from Indonesia, and we have just changed over now, one also from Thailand, on the anchor chain of the vessel so it cannot leave until the authorities have acted and investigated, and if necessary prosecuted, the owners of its vessel for violating Taiwanese law.
WAKE: What exactly is the concern that you have about this particular vessel?
TOLVANEN: This vessel has a long history of involvement in illegal fishing, around the world, as well as in the Pacific and at the moment it is ignoring Taiwan’s national laws. Its owners have not registered the vessel. It is a flag of convenience vessel and they are required to notify the Taiwan fisheries agency of this. And they have not done this although there has been time for them to do this. We concerned that this vessel can not comply with even such a simply requirement, how is it going to comply with complex international management and conservation measures, out in the Pacific, with respect of the pacific tuna, if it can’t even do that. So we want Taiwan’s fisheries agency to investigate and prosecute the owners, until this vessel returns to collect any tuna from the Pacific.
WAKE: What do you want authorities to do in Taiwan?
TOLVANEN: We now want Taiwan’s fisheries agencies to act on its own legislation and to investigate and to prosecute the owners of the Lung Yuin for not adhering for not comply with the requirements that they operate within. We also want Taiwan to take the Pacific tuna crisis seriously and to work internationally to ensure there is a 50 per cent reduction in the amount of tuna fishing in the Pacific, and to support the proposal of Pacific island countries to support the close areas of high seas this includes the long line vessels because these areas are vulnerable to pirate fishing.
