OWNED BY KIWIS FISHING "DEATH SHIP" BY SANDRA GORTER O
ne of the world's largest fishing vessels, the 9500 tonne 142 metre FV Margiris, has caused enough of an uproar amongst Australian fishermen to unite recreational fishers and environmentalists, groups who are usually at loggerheads, in their opposition to the entry of this super-sized fishing vessel to Australian fishing grounds. Initially headed for Devonport, Tasmania, environmental protests forced a cynical name change of the vessel from Margiris to Abel Tasman, as spin doctors sought to make the vessel more at home in Tasman waters, and its home port was changed to Queensland on the doorstep of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. FV Margiris is twice the size of any vessel that has ever fished
in the Tasman. Supertrawlers of this size have are so large that a number, (some say eight, others 11), of jumbo jets could fly through the net opening with room to spare, and indiscriminately vacuum up entire schools of fish. The largest deep sea trawler
operating out of New Zealand, Sealord's chartered Aleksandr Buryachenko, is about half the size by displacement. FV Margiris must catch somewhere over 16,000 tonnes of fish to just cover costs. It has a quota from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority to take 18,000 tonnes of jack mackerel, blue mackerel and redbait from the waters of the Great Australian Bight. European Greenpeace environmentalists initially delayed its departure from the Dutch port of Ijmuiden for five days, and in Tasmania more than 200 vessels of all descriptions successfully formed a convoy on the Derwent river on August 11, to protest its impending in Devonport in September, forcing its relocation to Queensland.
Ownership and funding of this "death ship" makes for interesting reading. FV Margiris is owned by a Dutch headed joint venture, Parlevliet and Van der Plas. New Zealanders Peter and Donna Simunovich are major shareholders and have a controlling interest in the ship. Peter Suminovich is also a director of one of the two companies in the joint venture. Parlevliet and Van der Plas are heavily subsidised by the European Union. Their fleet and other European Pelagic Freezer Trawler Association trawlers are now banned by West African states because they have destroyed inshore fisheries to the point of collapse. They have also severely damaged fishing in the North Atlantic, and the mackerel fishery off South America. The EU paid an estimated €142.7 million to secure fishing rights
for PFA vessels in Mauritanian and Moroccan waters between 2006- 2012 and EU taxpayers also pay more than 90 percent of the access costs that allow these companies to fish. These European companies have recently been in the media for their involvement in the South Pacific Mackerel Fishery which failed after fish stock collapsed to less than 10 percent of original estimates. Subsidies that expand fishing capacity, including for vessel construction and modernisation, and operating costs, particularly
70 Professional Skipper November/December 2012
