New Zealand navy inspecting fishing vessels in southwest Pacific

The New Zealand navy has boarded 26 commercial fishing boats in waters around island nations as part of the effort to stop illegal fishing the southwest Pacific, the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) said Monday.

Offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Otago began the operation in Fiji's exclusive economic zone, making 18 boardings on June 13-19.

The other inspections were carried out during patrols in Tuvalu, said HMNZS Otago Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Andrew Sorenson.

"There were some breaches, but on the whole, all vessels were compliant and allowed us to board," Sorenson said.

The navy was checking that fishing boats were monitoring fishing activity and complying with the rules, and then reporting back to the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency.

HMNZS Otago was carrying compliance officers from New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and Pacific island nations.

"MPI places great importance on this patrol as it not only supports the Pacific islands' management of key fish stocks, but it also allows for the protection of our own domestic tuna fisheries, given the migratory nature of the various tuna species," MPI chief operations officer Andrew Coleman said.

The fisheries patrols were set to continue this month supported by a New Zealand air force P-3K2 Orion aircraft.

Commodore Jim Gilmour, the Maritime Component Commander, said the patrols were carried out to help detect and deter illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activity on behalf of Pacific island nations.

"Vessels fishing for tuna are the current focus of our inspections," Gilmour said.

Overfishing of tuna is a major problem in the southwest Pacific, where small island nations lack the resources to properly patrol their vast territorial waters. Endit