fuel, are estimated to total about $16 billion globally each year representing close to 20 percent of the total value of their catch. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation concluded in 1998 that global fishing capacity was 2.5 times greater than global fish stocks could sustain. Since then capacity has increased. The UN and World Bank have assessed that overcapacity and overfishing are costing the global economy US$50billion annually. The FV Margiris joins a number of super trawlers and sophisticated Chinese boats sailing south, to exploit the waters north of New Zealand. Official figures show a 125 percent jump in the size of the China South Pacific tuna fleet, with many of them recently built. One of the Chinese companies involved has been caught shark finning but has covered it up by under-the- table payments to the Pacific Governments involved. Environmentalists are watching another super trawler, the Spanish owned and EU subsidised tuna purse seiner Albatun Tres, hauling in huge loads of albacore in international waters east of the Marquesas in French Polynesia. It has a licence to move into the Western Pacific and is believed to be heading into Kiribati which has a deal with Spain, allowing fishing inside the World Heritage listed 410,500 square kilometre Phoenix Islands Protected Area. Echoing the views of many, Tuna Club of Tasmania vice president Martin Haley says, there is strong opposition to the "ocean-going vacuum cleaner's impending arrival". In New Zealand, Matamata dairy farmer Matthew Zonderop, who has worked on the super-trawlers, says that when he first went into the herring fishery north of Iceland they were taking fish "as big as his arm". Within five years the fish were barely as big as his hand: "They are very efficient and very ruthless. It was pure greed."
There are no restrictions as to where FV Margiris can operate in the small pelagic fishery. Margiris has been allocated 18,000 of quota, can process over 250 tonnes of fish a day, and has a cargo capacity of 6200 tonnes. Each net shot from the FV Margiris takes around 1000 tonnes of fish compared to around 100 tonnes for the average sized trawler in New Zealand. The net cod-end is not hauled up onto a factory deck, super-trawlers simply pump fish straight from the net as it lies astern, meaning that fish are not damaged as occurs when nets are hauled onto decks. There is little in New Zealand law to stop FV Margiris if it obtains a quota. Claims that there will be 100 percent observer coverage on the FV Margiris may be misleading: while they contribute to compliance, they cannot prevent the environmental damage from occurring. If some form of video/e-monitoring were to be used to lighten the load on the observer/s, there would still need to be funding to support the analysis of this data. Two of the directors of Seafish Tasmania are Aucklanders Peter and Donna Simunovich. Peter Suminovich, son of the late Ivan Simunovich, managed Simunovich Fisheries before it was sold to Sanford in 2004 for $137 million. Peter and Donna are also major shareholders of the joint venture operating the FV Margiris in South Australian waters, and Peter is also a director of one of the two companies in the FV Margiris joint venture. Greenpeace New Zealand Campaigner Steve Abel says "Simunovich brings shame on New Zealand by their involvement in this death-ship the Margiris. Australians are rightly outraged. We should renounce these super trawlers and ban them from our waters."
Australians have temporarily stalled the super trawler's progress as protesters have brought about law amendments in the Federal government. If passed in the Senate, the law will effectively delay the trawler from fishing Australian waters for two years. How long will it be before it begins fishing New Zealand waters?
Good for the environment,
Real Science. Real Results.
VIP.S85 November/December 2012 Professional Skipper 71
VIP.S89
