Aid to fight gill nets
By
BRENDON BURNS
in Wellington
Legal assistance has been promised by New Zealand to help South Pacific countries control the spread of the “wall of death” fishing method.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Palmer, pledged help when he visited the South Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency in the Solomon Islands.
He said gill nets, sometimes up to 50km in length, killed every living creature they gathered.
During the 10 years that gill nets had been available, the albacore tuna fishery in the northern Pacific had almost collapsed. The main gill net fleets had moved to the South Pacific in the last fishing season. About 160 vessels from Taiwan, South Korea and Japan had been fishing South Pacific international waters. The estimated sustainable yield for troll fishing was estimated at 10,000 tonnes per season, but
these vessels took 45,000 tonnes last season. Nets lost at sea continued to kill fish for long periods. One difficulty was that fishing in international waters gave individual Governments no control.
The Forum Fishing Agency was now studying options for an international regime to control gill net fishing.
New Zealand would provide the necessary legal assistance, said Mr Palmer.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19890519.2.14
Bibliographic details
Press, 19 May 1989, Page 2
Word Count
198Aid to fight gill nets Press, 19 May 1989, Page 2
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
Log in