N.Z. buyer of seized Japanese trawler could risk losing it

Press, 17 February 1978, Page 1

N.Z. buyer of seized Japanese trawler could risk losing it

By

FPETER COMER

Any New Zealand company that bought the seized Japanese trawler Tomi Maru 81 could risk losing the ship to the Japanese if she was taken into international waters. The trawler’s former owners would then be quite entitled to seize her, according to an Australian solicitor who specialises in the law of the sea.

There would be nothing that the Tomi Maru’s new owners or the New Zealand Government could do about it.

This is the legal opinion of a Perth solicitor, Mr Stephen Chew, who represented a Taiwanese fishing consortium after two of its vessels were confiscated for alleged illegal fishing. He was referring to the Taiwanese boats, and an Australian syndicate’s plans to work one of them, but added that the same principles applied anywhere. “What no-one seems to appreciate is that they remain registered in Taiwan.” said Mr Chew.

“This applies to all boats confiscated by the Australian Government.

“Our power is effective only in territorial waters. In international waters the original owner could claim

his vessel back. Any Taiwanese company could intercept and take its vessel back,” said Mr Chew. If Mr Chew’s view is correct, the deep-sea trawler, Tomi Maru 81 could face a similar fate if she were bought and worked outside New Zealand territorial waters by a New Zealand interest. At least one New Zea-

land concern, the fisheries division of WrightsonNMA, Ltd, at Dunedin, has expressed a definite interest in the 350-tonne vessel. The manager of the division (Mr I. A. McClintock) confirmed last week that the company was seeking details of the Tomi Maru 81.

However, many inquiries with the “appropriate authorities” in New Zealand failed to find anyone who could sav for sure whether Mr Chew’s views applied in the Tomi Maru case, and whether she could, in fact, be reseized. A spokesman in the office of the Minister of Fisheries (Mr Bolger) said that Mr Chew’s statement was a legal opinion, and should not be disregarded.

The Tomi Maru 81 had been taken over under due process of New Zealand law, the spokesman said. But whether the Magistrate’s decision was still effective in international waters, when the confiscated trawler was still registered in Japan, he did not know. A source in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the

whole thing "would be a question of reregistration.”

"In one sense our law has a territorial application only, stretching 200 miles,” he said. “Seizing a boat on the high seas would be an interesting proposition — akin to piracy — but there could possibly be some technical defence if it were still registered in Japan.” If the Tomi Maru 81 was reregistered in New Zealand, it would legally become a New Zealand vessel.

The source said New Zealand had acted within the confines of international law in arresting the trawler in its own waters. Seizing the vessel back was not an action that a responsible com-

pany, or government, would be likely to take. “For one thing, it would probably cause such an international uproar that it would hardly be worth it.” he said. The director of the Fisheries Management Division of the Ministry of Fisheries at Wellington (Mr B. T. Cunningham) said he was unable to comment on Mr Chew’s statement because he did not know enough about the position. The Tomi Maru 81 was arrested by H.M.N.Z.S. Pukaki off Ninety Mile Beach on January 24, and was later prosecuted for fishing within a prohibited zone and using illegal equipment.

The captain and fishing master were fined a total of $41,000, and had their boat and catch confiscated. The Tomi Maru 81 herself will be advertised for sale in New Zealand and seven other countries in the next week.