Vanuatu payment made to Cook Islands for Illegal fishing

The Vanuatu Ministry of Finance and Economic Management is reported to have issued a cheque for $US186, 000 (around Vt20 million) to the Cook Islands Government last Friday.

The payment was made to ensure the black listing of one of the country’s flagged fishing vessels at this week’s Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission(WCPFC) 13th regular meeting in Nadi, Fiji this week did not take place.
 
The Vanuatu Department of Fisheries’ Compliance Manager, William Matariki, who is leading Vanuatu’s two-member delegation at the Commission meeting, confirmed this development to the Daily Post.
 
Matariki explained the issue concerning the Vanuatu-flagged fishing vessel, Essien No. 108, a large scale long liner, started in early 2016.
 
This was when the Government of Cook Islands sent a report to the Vanuatu Government alleging that this boat fished illegally in the Cook Island’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The incident happened on December 8, 9 and 10, 2015.
 
“After it received the report from Cook Islands, the Vanuatu Government carried out its own investigation. And from reports received by the Vanuatu Government through the vessel monitoring system of the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) and the vessel monitoring system of the Vanuatu Government, we confirmed that this vessel had fished in Cook Islands EEZ.
 
The vessel made three searches, starting in Kiribati’s EEZ,” Matariki continued.
 
“There was no problem with Kiribati, because the vessel has a license to fish in Kiribati’s EEZ,” he added.
 
“The vessel operator told us that they were using an EEZ map that is available on the web to carry out their fishing operations and that he was not in Cook Islands’ EEZ.
 
“But we must not forget that in 2014, Cook Islands and Kiribati agreed on a treaty along that boundary where the fishing vessel fished in.
 
“So, when we put the old boundary of Kiribati and Cook Islands and the new boundary, still the system showed that the vessel was in the Cooks EEZ.”
 
The head of the Vanuatu delegation said following that they spoke with the fishing operator and in September this year, a Vanuatu delegation went to Cook Islands and held discussions with Cook Islands authorities. The discussions held at that time showed that both countries had begun steps to address the issue. And on Vanuatu’s side the country as a flag state, had to demonstrate that it was a responsible flag state and it was carrying out steps to investigate and work together with Cook Islands to resolve the issue.
 
Both the Cook Islands and Vanuatu are members of the WCPFC. As members, cases that involve IUU – illegal, unreported or unregulated fisheries, and under the Commission’s conservation measure that provided for members to be able to list boats if found to violate their laws, Cook Islands listed Vanuatu in the draft list, the first step to black listing of a vessel.
 
“It is under this provision that Cook Islands listed this boat and in October, the Technical Compliance Committee (TCC) of the WCPFC sat and looked at the case of the Vanuatu boat reported by Cook Islands,” Matariki continued.
 
The boat is now under the Provisional List after the TCC meeting and the list is going before the Commission meeting opening today, December 5 and continuing through 9, which will look at the provisional list.
 
“And at this meeting if Cook Islands says the matter had not been resolved then the boat will continue to be on the list and in the event that it is still not resolved it will go into the black list,” Matariki explained.
 
“We spoke with the Cook Islands delegation today (Saturday) and I would like to thank the officials in our treasury in the Ministry and the Department of Finance in Port Vila with whom we worked under the understanding to resolve the matter as soon as possible before the commission meets.
 
“I understand that on Friday the Vanuatu Government made a payment to Cook Islands and I relayed this information to the Cook Islands delegation and they were glad. The amount paid was $US186,000 (Vt20 million approx).”
 
The Vanuatu Government applied an administrative penalty and made the boat operators of the Essien No. 108 pay the fine to the Ministry of Finance which organized the payment to the Government of Cook Islands.

Photo: PACNEWS