Problems of drift-net fisheries in the South Pacific

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Drift-nets are specialized gill nets, which when allowed to drift with winds and currents, gill, entangle and enmesh a wide range of living marine organisms. Though drift-net fishing has been used for some time in other areas of the world, it only commenced in the South Pacific in the mid-1970s. In the North Pacific, drift-nets have been mainly used in fisheries for squid, salmon and albacore tuna, while in the South Pacific, squid, sharks and albacore tuna have been the target species. Objections to high drift-net by-catch levels of non-target species catches of marine mammals, and in some cases, hazards to shipping, led fisheries authorities in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea to introduce measures which eventually led to the cessation of drift-net fishing activities in areas under national jurisdiction. The rapid expansion of the large-scale pelagic drift-net fishery for South Pacific albacore tuna and the magnitude of drift-net catches, engendered concern at a regional and international level for specific resources and the marine environment generally. Swift action by regional fisheries agencies and Pacific Island countries resulted in the 1989 call for the cessation of drift-net fishing in the South Pacific, in the form of the Tarawa Declaration. The Declaration's resolutions were addressed by the drafting of the Wellington Convention, essentially the establishment of a series of obligations directed towards banning drift-net fishing in the region. These developments in the South Pacific helped to energize international action, which eventually resulted in the adoption by the UN General Assembly of three resolutions on drift-net fishing. The most recent resolution (46/215 of 20 December 1991) established a moratorium on drift-net fishing in all of the world's oceans. Korea, Japan and Taiwan have responded to this regional and international pressure by withdrawing their drift-net fishing vessels from the South Pacific region. Though it is reported that there have been recent minor infringements of the moratorium in the North Pacific, it is unlikely that large-scale drift-net fishing will re-commence in the South Pacific. It is assumed that stocks of those species formerly taken by drift-nets in the South Pacific are recovering, as a direct result of the cessation of drift-netting.