Fishing boats cause concern

By Stuart Parker

CONCERN is growing in the Marshall Islands that Chinese fishermen are dam aging fishing stocks and crowding local boats out of the Pacific nation’s fledgling

tuna industry.

The tuna catch in the Marshall Islands has boomed since the first of about 60 Chinese longline fishing boats began arriving late last year under an economic co-operation deal. Recent figures show Marshall Islands waters are on course to produce almost 726 tonnes of tuna this year more than twice the catch last year. However at the same time, catches by the current fleet of seven Marshallese owned fishing boats are down almost 50 per cent.

The 60 Chinese vessels arrived after a memorandum of understanding was signed last June between the Marshall

Islands Development Authority (MIDA)

and the China Shanghai Corporation for Foreign Economic and Technological Cooperation. More Chinese vessels are expected this year. MIDA general man ager Justin deßrum admitted the Marshall Islands was worried about its fishing stocks following the arrival of the Chinese.

“We are carrying out an assessment study on fishing stocks and we are also looking at limiting the number of Chinese boats to about 80 for at least the rest of the year,” he told AAP.

Because the tuna industry was so new, it was not known how many fishing boats it would support. Deßrum further agreed there was concern local fishermen may be put out of business by the Chinese. A chief reason for higher Chinese catch is that each boat alerts its foreign col leagues when a school of tuna is found.

“That has yet to happen with the domestic fleet,” deßrum said.

Another worry is the poor state of many of the Chinese fishing boats, compared to the more modern local craft. “There are concerns about en vironment and pollution which we are addressing,” deßrum said.

When the deal was signed with China last year, deßrum said it would boost the one-year-old local industry, and earn vital income for the fishing base in Majuro and for Air Marshall Islands, which exports the tuna to Hawaii and Japan. Many Marshallese complain that the Chinese boats have failed to provide much of a boost to local employment and income, as expected.

However, deßrum said their arrival had had a big impact on Majuro’s economy and had created up to 40 jobs at the base. Chinese and Taiwanese fishing boats also are moving in growing numbers into the Federated States of Micronesia, which has no established tuna industry. AAP □