Govt offers gill net surveillance

Press, 25 May 1989, Page 6

Govt offers gill net surveillance

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington The Government has offered a naval vessel and aerial surveillance to watch for "wall-of-death” gill-net fishing and to patrol the waters of South Pacific countries asking for help. These offers will be taken to the planned meeting of the South Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency to be held at Honiara in the Solomon Islands on May 30-31. This will be a meeting of legal experts. Six Cabinet Ministers said yesterday the Government would be giving that meeting strong support. They were the Minister of Justice, Mr Palmer: the Minister of External Relations and Trade, Mr Moore; the Minister of Fisheries, Mr Moyle; the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Marshall; the Minister of Defence, Mr Tizard; and the

Minister of Conservation, Mr Woollaston. In advance of that meeting, the Government has announced five measures: ® The banning of the possession of large drift gill-nets by any fishing craft in New Zealand waters, including its exclusive economic zone and territorial sea. • Banning of the use of large drift gill-nets by any foreign or New Zealand fishing craft in those waters. • Prohibition of the trans-shipment of catches from drift gill-net vessels in New Zealand waters. • Denial of port access to drift gill-net vessels, meaning that port servicing of such vessels and the landing of their catches would be prohibited. ® Requirement, as a condition of every licence to fish within the exclusive economic zone, that no drift gill-net be carried on board the foreign fish-

ing vessel. The six Ministers also applauded the decision yesterday by the Auckland Harbour Board to deny port access to vessels using large drift gill-nets. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, criticised the time it had taken the Government to act. “The Government waited for weeks while it stuck its finger in the air and tested which way the wind was blowing on this issue,” he said. It now had to move resolutely in concert with other Pacific countries to rid the region of this catastrophic fishing technique. The six Ministers described “wall-of-death” fishing as abhorrent because. it could destroy viable fishing industries in the region. Large drift gill-nets had disastrous consequences for endangered marine mammals and the environment, they said.