Pope’s
pp. 6-7 · Read in the full issue
Lettersto The Editor
The
PNG visit
Madam, I have to write to you to set the record straight in relation to the refer ence in an article (PIM, February 1995) concerning His Holiness, Pope John Paul IPs recent visit to Papua New Guinea that “Pope John Paul travelled in an uncovered vehicle along the 14 kilome tres of potholed road into the city cen tre to celebrate an evening mass”.
The above journalistic quip can be nothing other than a poor reflection of your source of information and your magazine’s continuing attempts to paint Papua New Guinea as a country rigged with crime, poor managers, let alone being poor hosts to an important world leader.
If your source of information had taken more time to be more resource ful, he would have noted that at no point did the Holy Father’s programme take him to travel beyond five kilome tres within Port Moresby, either from the airport or the official residence of the Apostolic Nunciature where he was staying.
All roads from the airport to the Apostolic Nunciature’s residence and to the three principal centres where the mass and other activities took place were roads regularly used by Port
Moresby residents and have been main tained at normal, sound conditions.
There were no potholes in any part of these roads and the Holy Father’s motor cade never took him to distances beyond four kilometres from the Vatican’s official residence in Port
Moresby.
Such fabrications can only be con strued as attempts yet again by your maga2ine and your cohorts to portray this country as backward and that we are all irresponsible and nuts.
The people of this country, Port Moresby residents, their city managers and certainly the government deserve better; and indeed an apology from you and/or your magazine.
Gabriel Busava
Secretary Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Papua New Guinea
The
state of
our fisheries
Madam, Roman Grynberg’s well written piece on South Pacific fisheries ( PIM , February 1995) was a useful reminder that the world’s marine resources are limited. He correctly identifies the once rich North Atlantic cod fishery, now
exhausted, as a warning to the managers of the South Pacific tuna fishery.
With respect, however, he overstates his case when he says, “In the South Pacific we have a situation where the existing tuna fisheries are clearly out of control,” and, again, “In the end there is little optimism for the management of the fisheries ...”
I take issue with both those remarks.
First, he has ignored some recent suc cesses in the South Pacific, including; * Adoption of 200-mile EEZs, now recognised by the Distant Water Fishing Nations (DWFN). Twenty-five years ago, Forum nations had three or 12-mile lim its and the rule of law did not extend to the high seas; * Prohibition of drift-netting. As recently as 1988-89, 40-kilometre drift nets threatened to turn the waters of the South Pacific into a maritime desert, devoid of sea mammals, birds, turtles, as well as all migratory fish. Now, with a Prohibition Convention, a UN resolu tion, and several US statutes, drift-net ting has effectively been stopped; * A multi-lateral treaty with the US which paid Forum nations USsl2 mil lion per year for the five years (1988- 1993) and which will pay US$lB million per year for 1994-1998. The worst
poachers thus become game-keepers.
Second, Grynberg could have bal anced his pessimism with an account of the guardians of that “last renewable resource”, the Forum Fisheries Agency.
He would have found, on the hills over looking Honiara, a well housed, well staffed, well led, highly motivated
agency with effective satellite commu nications and state-of-the-art computer gear. Although he refers to the FFA as being concerned with “political, legal, and economic issues”. Article VII (a) of its charter refers to “collection ... of sta tistical and biological information” of marine resources as one of its functions.
Interested readers should compare Grynberg’s article with the eight-page Special Report - Fisheries in Crisis ” by David North (PIM, June 1988) which noted that “there is an abundance of tuna ...” and that “the tuna fishing resource in the Pacific has such poten tial (which could) be reaped and exploited to the benefit of all the partic ipants and island nations ...”
Sure, we don’t know enough about who catches how much of what species exactly where. (What fishing captain ever did keep perfect records for exter nal consumption?) Sure, we don’t know enough about the life cycles, reproduc tion and migration of tuna - but, thanks to aerial surveillance, better trained fish eries officers and a few highly publi cised prosecutions and confiscations, the gamekeepers are catching up with
the poachers.
There is certainly no reason to relax but there are many reasons for opti mism. There are environmental disasters aplenty in the South Pacific - but fish eries management is one of the few suc cess stories.
Bill Hodge,
Faculty of Law, Auckland University, New Zealand