The time is now to ramp up efforts to halt illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Pacific, New Zealand urged on Monday.
The country’s foreign minister, Murray McCully, told delegates at the United States-New Zealand 2011 Partnership Forum in Christchurch, New Zealand, that the Pacific’s fisheries, particulalry tuna, are being drastically eroded by IUU fishing. He called on the United States and Australia to join in the effort to step up fishing surveillance activities in the Pacific, adding that New Zealand is the region’s largest provider of aerial surveillance.
“(We) have a major responsibility to our neighbours to ensure that sustainable management practises are put in place soon,” said McCully. “We are fast running out of time.”
McCully estimated that NZD 400 million worth of tuna a year is caught illegally in the Pacific, a crushing loss to countries that are facing “sub-Saharan levels of poverty.”
“Our close cooperation with the United States and the rest of the international community on the question of Fiji is vital if democracy is to be restored to the Fijian people,” he said.
