New Zealand fishers call for African-flagged "poachers" to be driven out of business

A New Zealand fishing industry group on Tuesday named the two foreign vessels that the New Zealand navy has allegedly caught fishing illegally in the Southern Ocean and demanded they be driven out of business.

Seafood New Zealand said the two boats, which claimed to be flagged to the central African state of Equatorial Guinea, were named the Songhua and the Kunlun and were illegally catching toothfish in waters around Antarctica.

The boats were serial offenders and needed to be "hounded out" of a valuable, strictly regulated fishery, Seafood New Zealand chief executive Tim Pankhurst said in a statement.

"While these are not New Zealand waters, we are party to the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, which regulates toothfishing in the Southern Ocean," he said.

The vessels had no quota and no right to be fishing in Southern Ocean waters, and their Equatorial Guinea flags were "a likely front."

"It is vital to keep tracking them, seize their catch and drive them out of business," said Pankhurst.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said Monday that navy vessel HMNZS Wellington had gathered photographic and video footage of illegal fishing by the vessels, which would contribute to any legal action taken against the owners.

New Zealand had contacted Equatorial Guinea to seek permission to board the vessels if their flag status was verified, he said.

The New Zealand authorities had also requested that Interpol issue a purple notice for each vessel, which would put alerts out on the vessels and their owners among 190 Interpol member countries.

Fishing in the Southern Ocean was regulated by the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, and New Zealand conducted regular patrols there targeting illegal fishing operations. Endi