Tag: purse seine

Purse-seine chopper pilot absconds with helicopter

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A Spanish contract pilot who flew a fish-spotting helicopter for a Taiwan-flagged purse seiner is now facing criminal charges in the Marshall Islands. Pictured is one of the Win Far tuna fleet purse seiners with a helicopter on the bow. Photo: Karen Earnshaw.

Republished from FFA Trade and Industry News, volume 13, issue 4, July–August 2020

In late June 2020, a helicopter pilot working onboard the Taiwanese purse seiner Win Far 626 that was fishing in the Kiribati EEZ absconded with his helicopter and flew northward, landing on Nallu Island, Mili Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, after what was said to have been a two-and-a-half-hour flight. Mili is about 112 km south of the capital, Majuro, and roughly the same distance from the EEZ boundary with Kiribati. 

According to an affidavit filed by the Marshall Islands’ Director of Immigration, “The pilot took off without permission and unannounced from the vessel.” The pilot, 39 year-old Brazilian and Spanish dual citizen Jose Eduardo Marinho Goncalves, later told authorities that he was tired of eating fish and rice almost every day and missed his family after a long period at sea and wanted to return home.

After being advised by Mili officials of the helicopter’s landing, the Marshall Islands Government dispatched its patrol boat, Lomor, and several government officials to Mili where Goncalves was arrested and brought to Majuro. He was charged with entry at an unofficial port of entry, entry without a valid visa, and failure to surrender any document.

The illegal entry offenses were particularly concerning to Marshall Islands officials, since the country has been in a border lockdown since late March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has banned all entry of people into the country and so far, has not recorded any COVID-19 cases.  

Upon arrival in Majuro, Goncalves was handed over to the Department of Health, was tested for COVID-19 and immediately went into quarantine at a facility that has been set up by the Department of Health during the pandemic. The Lomor crew and others onboard were also tested, with all tests including that of Goncalves returned as negative.  After completion of quarantine the pilot had his first appearance in front of the Marshall Islands High Court and was released on his own recognizance. Goncalves was represented by the Chief Public Defender who entered into negotiations with the Marshall Islands’ Attorney General prior to a plea hearing on 24 July.

At the hearing, the resident of Madrid, Spain apologized for his illegal entry and expressed his appreciation for the treatment he received while in the Marshall Islands. Also present at the hearing was Spain’s Honorary Consul in the Marshall Islands, Deborah Kramer. As part of a plea bargain between the Chief Public Defender and the Attorney General, Goncalves pleaded guilty to entry at an unofficial port of entry, which is a misdemeanor. The other two charges, entry without a visa and failure to surrender any document, were dismissed by the Attorney General. Chief Justice Carl Ingram gave the pilot a suspended sentence and said that if the court has not revoked probation and imposed a jail sentence at the end of six months, he would vacate the conviction from Goncalves’ record.

In what was a happy ending for Goncalves, he departed Majuro on 24 July on the United Airlines special monthly repatriation flight that had been recently introduced for outgoing passengers only. It is not known if either the company that owns the Win Far 626 or the owner of the helicopter, Guam-based Hansen Helicopters, are planning any further legal action against the pilot.  What is known is that at the end of July the helicopter was still stuck on Mili. Hansen, which also has a base in Majuro where they service helicopters used by the purse seine fleet in the Western Pacific, asked Goncalves to assist in retrieving the helicopter by flying it from Mili to Majuro before his departure, but he declined to do so. Whilst there are no indications in this particular case of human rights or labour abuse, this demonstrates the highly challenging nature of life at sea on distant water fishing vessels, even for those in higher-level positions.

Give a thought for the workers who put tuna on your plate

Categories FeaturesPosted on

Meet Salim. He works on a purse-seiner flagged to a distant-water fishing nation operating in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. 

You may be at home enjoying a leisurely weekend meal of tuna from a fish he helped catch, freeze and tranship during his current work stint. 

Salim is still working on that boat. His contract is for three years, and he has almost two years more to go before he can go home and sit down to dinner with his family.

There are no weekends or holidays on a fishing boat. The day is marked by mealtimes and the weeks and months by fishing, coming to port to tranship or unload, and going back fishing. 

When at sea, the vessels are either looking for fish or catching it. The catching requires a highly choregraphed and dangerous set of manoeuvres that, while completed in a rigorous order, depend a lot on the weather and sea conditions for their execution. And while the vessel is looking for fish, the crew are doing maintenance: moving fish from wells to dry lockers, repairing nets, cleaning, and a hundred more chores.

When in port, you have to unload (either tranship or land), and that means handling one by one all the tuna in a catch that may weigh in at anything from 700 tons to 1,700 tons. 

There are different jobs on board during the unloading, and crew get rotated among a few of them. Salim is wearing protective clothing because he is loading frozen tuna into a cargo net to move the catch to carrier during transhipment. On deck temperature may be 35°C, but where he is working is around –15°C. (On a longliner, the freezer may get down to –35°C.) On this kind of day, Salim starts at 7 am and finishes at 10 pm, and has five breaks during the day.

Man in clothing to protect him from icy environment in ship's hold with part of a tuna. Photo Francisco Blaha
Because of the restricted space on a fishing vessel, most of the work of handling tuna is hard manual labour. This crew member is working in the freezer of a longliner, where the temperature may be as low as –35°C. Photo: Francisco Blaha.

Crew members’ rights are protected when working in waters of FFA states

Salim’s rights as an employee are complex. In principle, they depend on the flag state of the vessel, but unfortunately there many loopholes that allow some operators to circumvent these. 

Until recently, fisheries authorities of coastal state and port states had very limited scope on what they could do when labour rights where abused, since they were considered labour issues and not fisheries offences. But in momentous move, FFA’s member states ruled that vessels allowed to fish in their waters must comply with labour standards as part of the regionally harmonised minimum terms and conditions (MTCs) for access by fishing vessels. The labour component of the MTCs are based on the International Labour Organisation’s standard C188, Working in Fishing Convention.

This is momentous because, since 1 January 2020, if a vessel does not uphold these labour rights and conditions as part of their licensing, its right to fish can be removed and the vessel would not be in good standing. This is the first time in the world that a direct link has been made between labour standards and the right to fish by a coalition of coastal states!

This is good for Salim, as his rights are protected as long as the vessel fishes in the waters of FFA members. 

While we can help protect what he earns, we do not influence how much he earns. Crew in Salim’s deckhand position earn around US$350 a month. A fisher doing the same work but from a country with a stronger labour set-up and unions or a flag state that applies its domestic laws to its vessels would earn four or five times that.

So why do people like Salim do this work? Simply, because the work opportunities in his home country are so limited that this actually a good deal for him. And although this fact can be used to justify his very limited earnings, one could argue strongly that it fits under the definition of exploitation of labour.

Four men on a tuna fishing vessel maintaining equipment. Photo Francisco Blaha.
While the fishing vessel is looking for the next catch of tuna, crew members attend to maintenance tasks. Photo: Francisco Blaha.

But international guidelines on working conditions remain voluntary

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is in the process of developing guidelines for social responsibility in the fishing industry. However, they are being watered down by some powerful countries that are bent on maintaining the status quo to keep labour costs low, so as to maximise profits from fishing. As with most of the UN instruments, unless signed by nations, they remain voluntary. 

Although people such as Salim are meant to be the main beneficiaries of these guidelines, it may be a long time before Salim sees working conditions similar to those of fishers from developed nations.

The issue of labour right in fisheries is very complex, multifaceted and political and, as with most difficult problems, there are never easy answers. Yet there are many good people trying to work it out. Initiatives like FFA’s MTCs are a solid start in what is a marathon and not a sprint.

My approach to the work ahead would be from two parallel angles. On one side are regulatory frameworks, and international agreements under flag, coastal, and port state jurisdiction. On the other are private sector due diligence, since at the end of the day consumers in rich market states would not be keen to buy if they have doubts about the human cost of their fish. 

So, the importers have the chance to influence the international supply chains to see labour conditions and earnings of crew raised. (Hopefully, this would be supported with a price difference.) 

For all this, it is important that you don’t pity Salim and many other thousands like him in many jobs in the world. Pity the circumstances they live in, and shame the operators that exploit those circumstances.People like Salim are some of the most resilient, positive, nicest, and most innovative and determined people Ihave ever met and worked with. Without these qualities, they wouldn’t be alive.

Three fishers stand among hundreds of tuna in a ship's hold. Photo Francisco Blaha.
Crew members of a purse-seiner will unload or tranship a tuna catch that weighs anything from 700 tons to 1,700 tons. Photo: Francisco Blaha.

Mending the nets a challenging job: postcard from Noro

Categories Photography, The tuna picturePosted on

Mending fishing nets is no easy task when the net is from a purse-seiner and may be up to 3,000 metres long and 300–400 metres deep, and weigh 6 tonnes, as in the case of super-seiners.

The design and construction of these nets are complex, as they have to function well in a variety of situations, weather and sea conditions that are pretty challenging. Not only do they have to withstand the complicated mix of forces and tensions during setting and hauling, they also have to cope with the extra stress put on them by being used under potentially different currents from the water surface to the bottom of the net.

Running repairs are done constantly. Many are done on board, but major repairs require a large, flat surface such as a wharf or net yard, and the use of forklifts and other equipment to move the net panels around. Francisco Blaha gives us a better appreciation of the difficulty crews face when repairing nets, at sea and in port. 

Photo by Francisco Blaha.

Rays to be released while still in the water: postcard from WCPFC16

Categories The tuna picturePosted on

Tuna fishers will have to do everything they can to save rays, including the magnificent manta ray, that are unintentionally caught during fishing operations.

Several species of mobulid rays, which include the mantas, are perilously close to extinction. One of the reasons for this is the numbers that die when they become part of the tuna catch. 

The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) hopes to reverse the trend to extinction. At its 16th annual meeting, delegates agreed on tougher rules aimed at helping rays survive industrial fishing operations. (Wildlife caught accidentally during fishing is known collectively as bycatch.)

Following a period to allow fishing operators to prepare to comply with the rule, purse-seine fishers will be required to release any rays caught in their fishing gear while they are still swimming freely. Purse-seine and longline operators will also be banned from dragging or lifting rays by their cephalic lobes, the flaps that they use to direct water and food into their mouths.

New protection for threatened manta and mobula rays in Pacific waters

Categories @WCPFC16, FFA Media Fellows past events, News, NewsPosted on

PORT MORESBY – The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) took a major step in helping to protect “threatened” manta and other mobula rays on the final day of its annual meeting on Wednesday.

It adopted a resolution that requires fishers to immediately release any manta rays caught accidentally as “bycatch”.

An international fisheries officer of Pew Charitable Trusts, Glen Holmes, said the increased protection was one of the positive outcomes of the WCPFC meeting, which was held in Port Moresby.

Mr Holmes said the action is considered a “big win” from the commission meeting. 

“WCPFC agreed to increase protections for threatened manta and mobula rays by banning purse-seine and longline vessels from keeping any caught in their nets and hooks. This is a positive step and helps remove the incentive for fishers to capture and keep these imperilled species,” Mr Holmes said.

Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) members were the proponents of the proposal for a new measure to prevent targeted fishing and retention of mobulid rays, and to promote their safe release, when they are caught in WCPFC convention area fisheries.

FFA Director-General Dr Manu Tupou-Roosen said that the protection of rays is one of the “excellent” outcomes of the WCPFC meeting. 

Pew said six species of manta and mobula rays are vulnerable to overfishing. The species in peril are listed to appendix 2 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and appendixes 1 and 2 of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.

To many island nations such as Palau and FSM, manta-ray watching is a big tourism draw. There is also global plea to protect rays, which not only get tangled in nets and fishing lines but are also targeted for their meat and gill plates.

Under the measure, purse seiners are required to release rays while they are still swimming freely, with rays that are too large to be lifted safely by hand to be brailed out of the net and released using a purpose-built large-mesh cargo net, or canvas sling or similar device.

Purse seiners and longliners are also banned from dragging, carrying, lifting or pulling a ray by its “cephalic lobes” or tail or by inserting hooks or hands.

Bubba Cook, the head of WWF’s delegation to the WCPFC16, said WWF was happy to see that the manta rays measure move forward.

Pacific countries gather to plan for the future of oceanic fisheries management

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HONIARA, 24 October 2019 – The 14 member states of the Oceanic Fisheries Management Project (OFMP2) gathered on Tuesday to plan for the final year of the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) initiative. During the 7th Global Environment Facility (GEF) Steering Committee meeting, participants reflected on project’s achievements during the year and made plans for the future.

FFA representatives talked final targets for the OFMP2 project before it wraps up in 2020. Next year, the project will focus on limits and allocations for tropical tuna on purse seine and longline vessels, longline electronic monitoring, and transhipment review. 

Solomon Islands crew quantifying transhipments from a Taiwanese longliner. Photo: Francisco Blaha.

Project Manager, Hugh Walton said one of the main concerns for the next phase of the project was high seas management.

“Deep Water Fishing Nations (DWFNs), particularly China and Taiwan, want to retain that right for the high seas transhipment.

“They have to be able to prove economic disadvantage […] it’s not documented, and it’s not tested, so it’s a huge loophole and we’re trying to close it.”

The Parties to the Nauru Agreement Office CEO, Ludwig Kumoru, also emphasised that the project could only move forward with long-term high seas allocations in place. Current allocations ensure that available resources are equitably distributed between fisheries who target the same species outside country Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs).

Mere Lakeba, Director of Fisheries, Fiji said that catering to countries’ individual needs was important moving forward. Hugh Walton, OFMPII coordinator said that this would be a priority.

“In preparing the last proposal, the OMFP sent consultants to each country and produced a template of situational analyses of what was going on in each country to identify national priorities.

“There is no one size fits all, and we would not aspire to a one size fits all approach,” Walton said.

Walton also spoke of project successes including the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) and the resulting Strategic Action Programme (SAP) produced by Professor David Vousden of Rhodes University.

The TDA and SAP have shed light on the current challenges for the management of Pacific EEZs, and presented Pacific countries with the steps that can be taken to mitigate the issues.

The report put root causes of current fisheries issues down to a lack of high seas compliance, climate change impacts, and pollution from coastal and inland activities.

It also notes a positive: migratory tuna stocks are currently at sustainable levels due to the management and efforts of Pacific fisheries over the last 20 years.

All 14 member states have sent letters of endorsement for the Project Implementation Form (PIF). The PIF was submitted to the GEF on October 11, and outlines plans for continuing OFMP2 activities. A detailed proposal for the next phase of the project is planned for June 2020.

Three-month ban on use and servicing of FADs from 20°N to 20°S begins on 1 July

Categories Media releases, NewsPosted on

Republished from the Western & Central Pacific Fisheries Commission

Federated States of Micronesia, Pohnpei

Deadline: 1 Jul 2019 to 1 Oct 2019

A three-month prohibition on deploying, servicing or setting on FADs shall be in place between 0001 hours UTC on 1 July and 2359 hours UTC on 30 September each year for all purse seine vessels, tender vessels, and any other vessels operating in support of purse seine vessels fishing in exclusive economic zones and the high seas in the area between 20N and 20S.*

*Members of the PNA may implement the FAD set management measures consistent with the Third Arrangement Implementing the Nauru Agreement of May 2008. Members of the PNA shall provide notification to the Commission of the domestic vessels to which the FAD closure will not apply. That notification shall be provided within 15 days of the arrangement being approved.

PNA member countries will now have access to Tokelau’s waters

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Photo: Francisco Blaha.

Tokelau and the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) member countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at last week’s meeting of PNA Ministers in Palau that allows the South Pacific territory to join the FSM Arrangement(FSMA), an agreement which allows parties domestic vessels who are licensed under the arrangement,  to access the fishing resources of other parties.

Tokelau is the latest participants, joining other signatories (Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau,  Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands).

Under the MOU, a framework for the participation of Tokelau in the FSMA will be established. The arrangement also enables holders of Regional Access Licenses under the FSMA to fish in Tokelau’s exclusive economic zone and it also ensures license holders fishing in Tokelau fisheries waters complies with applicable national laws of Tokelau.

Tokelau will allow all purse seine vessels licensed to fish in the Arrangement Area under the FSMA to access its exclusive economic zone.

As a participant to the FSMA, Tokelau may participate in the Annual Meeting and any Special Meeting of the Parties to the FSMA and may participate in the decision making but Tokelau will have no voting right in the process.

 The arrangement will take effect on July 1, 2019.

PNA CEO Ludwig Komoru said the signing of the MOU with Tokelau is a “very important step” which means in that the countries in the FSMA arrangement can now go to Tokelau waters to fish.” Giving both Tokelau and PNA countries “extra area to fish and extra revenues, so it’s a win-win.”

Tokelau is made up of three small coral atolls – Atafu, Fakaofo and Nukunonu.

Tokelau has an  EEZ covering 318,990 square kilometers.

Tokelau does not have a commercial fishing fleet however, it has a large artisanal fleet of about 50 – 60 small 12’ to 16’ ft. motorized aluminum boats.

In 2012, Tokelau joined the PNA’s vessel day scheme, the country’s main industry is fishing.

On May 29-30, 2019, Fisheries Ministers from PNA convened in  Koror, Palau for their 14th annual meeting.

During the meeting, fisheries ministers also considered several important issues at this meeting, such as the PNA Office budget, PNA’s Strategic Plan, the 2020 Party Allowable Effort (PAE), an independent Chair for the PNA Compliance Committee, the purchase of Fisheries Information Management System (FIMS) from Quick Access, high seas bunkering, Vanuatu’s request to join PNA’s Longline (LL) Vessel Day Scheme (VDS),  

Tokelau is also a participant at these meetings as a party to the Palau Arrangement (PA), which is the management arrangement for the purse seine fishery.  

FFA launches fact sheets on tuna fishing basics

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The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) has published two fact sheets that define basic aspects of tuna fishing in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.

One is on the four tuna species that are most important to Pacific Island economies. The fact sheet shows how to tell apart adult albacore, bigeye, skipjack, and yellowfin tuna. That’s easier than distinguishing the young, which look similar to each other.

The fact sheet also gives basic details about the life cycle of the four tuna, and outlines the main markets for each type of tuna.

The second fact sheet distinguishes the main features of purse-seine and longline fishing. These are the two most important industrial fishing methods in this part of the Pacific Ocean. 

It also describes simply how fish are caught using these methods.

Covers of two FFA fact sheets on four kinds of tuna, and on purse seine and longline fishing. Published May 2019.

Purse seine tuna fishery supplying FCF Taiwan achieves MSC status

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Republished from Undercurrent News, 22 June 2018

Photo: Greenpeace

A Taiwanese purse seiner hauls its catch in the western Pacific. Photo: GreenpeaceA purse seine tuna fishery in the western and central Pacific shared by the US, China and Taiwan — and supplying tuna company FCF Fishery of Taiwan — has achieved Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification.

The South Pacific Tuna Corporation (SPTC), in conjunction with FCF and the Western Pacific Sustainable Tuna Alliance, announced the central Pacific skipjack and yellowfin free-school purse seine fishery had achieved and received the MSC standard on June 22.

The fishery is operated by US, China, and Taiwan-flagged vessels. Authorized vessels principally fish for skipjack and yellowfin tuna within the exclusive economic zones of countries that are Parties to the Nauru Agreement, as well as the high seas.

“This certification is an important step we have worked diligently towards to meet the standards of MSC. We are proud to be the leader in driving sustainable practices, as well as establishing a standard that exceeds that of the NGO community,” said Ray Clarke, vice president of environmental development and government affairs at SPTC.

According to Clarke, the companies will now provide in excess of 100,000 metric tons of MSC-certified tuna to the global market.

The certification comes amid Greenpeace allegations of labor abuses on tuna vessels supplying FCF Taiwan. However, Taiwanese fishing authorities have said the allegations refer to old cases, while industry sources have also queried the connection with FCF.