Press release – 8 December, 2015Bali, 9 December 2015 – A key Pacific fisheries meeting has failed to protect oceans from overfishing after a series of deadlocks in talks over stopping illegal and damaging fishing practices, Greenpeace International said today.Proposals to reduce overfishing, protect sharks and ban transshipments at sea all reached a stalemate at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) in Bali, Indonesia. The meeting ended late yesterday.
“It is unbelievable that faced with scientific evidence on the alarming state of the Pacific’s remaining tuna stocks, the countries here have done nothing to help their conservation,” said Lagi Toribau, head of the Greenpeace delegation at the meeting.
“Leaving the fate of tuna, which coastal communities depend on, in the hands of the commission country members and the industry groups that accompany them is not good enough. It’s time to take this fight into other arenas,” he added.
Greenpeace is urging coastal states to take urgent action unilaterally and warned tuna traders and fishing companies they must take responsibility for the future of their own businesses.
The practice of transshipment involves smaller fishing boats transferring catches to a larger ship, allowing them to fish for longer periods without coming into port. The practice is linked to illegal and unsustainable fishing, as well as human rights abuses of the fishermen onboard the boats.
Since the WFPFC has failed to adopt new rules to ban transhipment at sea, it is now the responsibility of traders and retailers to ensure the tuna they sell has not been transshipped at sea.
“Failing to ban transshipments leaves supply chains vulnerable to illegal fishing and human rights abuses,” said Mr Toribau.
Earlier this year, the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior exposed how the inadequacy of existing shark rules and the impact of transshipments at sea allow illegal fishing to flourish. Following the bust of the Taiwanese longliner, Shuen De Ching No. 888, Nauru
banned transshipments
and other Pacific Island countries indicated they will follow suit. In October, the European Union
issued Taiwan with a yellow card
, putting them on notice to clean up their distant water fisheries or face trade sanctions.