The driftnets are back

TAIWANESE fishing boats are again using the environmentally cata strophic driftnets in the South Pacific, and one New Zealand company has withdrawn its boats from the area because it said the nets pose a danger to them. Two vessels belonging to one of New Zealand’s largest deep sea fishing companies, Skeggs Seafoods Ltd, have been ordered out of the area south of Tahiti because they face capsizing if propellers are caught in the nets.

Skeggs’ tuna fleet manager, Gary Levy, said two United States boats recently were caught in the nets and crew members had to dive beneath the hulls to cut the vessels free.

Japan has bowed to pressure to ban the nets, which can be up to 55km in length, and Taiwan had seemed close to following suit. But Levy said his crews were “astounded” to encounter a fleet of 12 Taiwanese boats in the middle of the night at latitude 41, all with driftnets out for albacore tuna.

The disclosure is sure to provoke South Pacific island nations several of which have diplomatic ties with Taipei to take steps to ensure that the Taiwanese conform with the United Nations resol ution which bans the practice from July 1 this year.

But they will be even more disturbed by the fact that Skeggs’ boats have been catching large quantities of driftnet damaged tuna. This will confirm their fears that many fish and birds caught in the nets suffer injury or slow deaths. The damaged tuna caught by the New Zealand vessels were heavily scarred and in generally bad condition. The Gom pany’s vessels carry 75 tonnes of fish when fully loaded. Levy said up to 5 tonnes of that could consist of net damaged tuna. .Both New Zealand and US skippers reportedly claim that Taiwanese boats are deliberately endangering other vessels in the grounds by shooting nets in their Paths. f Lev y said ‘he two boats were wltbdrawn for their safety and to avoid confrontations wlth the Taiwanese Driftnettmg is extremely disliked be cause it is so efficient that it reduces the overall T stocks i not J ust the tar Set f,sh s P L ecles - A r f P ° rt fr ° m Amencan Samoa wh?r|tw<? tuna ca " nerles operate, said bouth Korean longhne vessels are cutting short their season in the South Pacific because of the poor catches some boats are down to half their normal daily haul. South Korea’s consul in Pago Pago said many of his country’s boats

had also been discouraged by falling

prices for albacore. □