Gone fishing, not researching

Press, 16 July 1983, Page 16

Gone fishing, not researching

The incident in which four New Zealand fisheries scientists were put off a Soviet vessel that they thought would be under charter for research was awkward when it happened and shows every sign of becoming unnecessarily complicated. This was not an incident of any significance between New Zealand and the Soviet Union. Strictly speaking, it was the result of a failure to complete a contractual arrangement between a fishing company, Sanford, Ltd, and the Soviet Union before the scientists took to sea. Sanfords was under contract to the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. This year’s arrangement was expected to be similar to last year’s. The Fisheries Research Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries calls for tenders from New Zealand companies to charter a vessel for research for 42 days. The payment is to be made in kind: 1000 tonnes of orange roughy is allocated, provided that the company catches it itself. Last year, Fletcher Fishing was the successful tenderer and chartered a Soviet vessel, the Kaltan. The area surveyed was the Chatham Rise. As a result of this research it was decided that orange roughy were in the area in greater quantities than had previously been known. The annual allowable catch was increased by 3000 tonnes. This year the successful tenderer was Sanfords, and the company sought to charter another Soviet vessel, the Dolomit. Sanfords appeared sufficiently confident that the Soviet Union would agree to the contract that the scientists embarked, on their mission. Sanfords sent a telex to Moscow to get confirmation but no reply was forthcoming. When the reply came, it was negative; and by that time the scientists were at the Challenger Rise, an area only some of which lies within New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone. The scientists had to leave the ship without doing their research. The ship went fishing. The Soviet .Union may have been tardy about saying whether it would enter into a

contract; but tardiness is not. to be confused with a breach of the Law of the Sea Convention. The Law of the Sea Convention is not even relevant in this case. The Dolomit was part of a joint venture arrangement, to be under charter to a New Zealand company. As such, it was not licensed as a foreign vessel to fish in the exclusive zone. The Soviet Union decided that it was to be used for joint-venture fishing, not for research. The suggestion has been made that the Soviet Union wants New Zealand scientists to use a Soviet research vessel which is outside New Zealand’s E.E.Z. for research and the Soviet Embassy has made it clear that this vessel is still available. However, since the invasion of Afghanistan, New Zealand has not permitted the Soviet Union to conduct research in the E.E.Z. Possibly, the Soviet Union was relying on the plight of the New Zealand fisheries research to pressure New Zealand into accepting the Soviet research vessel. The whole embarrassing tangle leaves the question of why New Zealand is attempting to do its fisheries research in such a fashion. The reason is that New Zealand has no fisheries research vessel of its own capable of work at such a distance from New Zealand. The New Zealand Government has two fisheries research vessels, the James Cook, of some 400 tons, and the Kaharoa, of some 300 tons. Both are useful for research close to the shore. The Dolomit, by contrast, is about 3000 tonnes. Such research as is done in New Zealand’s 1.2 million square miles of E.E.Z. is done either close to shore or under some arrangement such as was successfully used last year. If the Soviet Union was putting pressure on New Zealand, New Zealand put itself in the position in which it was vulnerable to pressure by attempting to carry out research on the cheap. The outcome has been embarrassment and no research. Until New Zealand becomes more independent in its fisheries research by having its own ship, or in some other way ceasing to be dependent on others,- such incidents may well be repeated.