Korea's fishing crime wave
Korea's fishing crime wave
Blogpost by Karli Thomas - 10 October, 2014 at 10:25
It's incredible to watch the unravelling of the tangled web illegal fishers have woven around their dirty business. Fishing companies have created elaborate webs of deception stretching from Korea to New Zealand, Argentina to South Africa, and as far south as the icy Antarctic waters. But no matter how deep they try to bury their crimes, eventually they will come back to haunt them.
Those crimes include a blatant disregard of laws and fisheries agreements, the reckless and abusive treatment of crew, and the plunder of fish for greed and short term profit. South Korea's distant water fishing fleets are responsible for several recent cases that include all the above crimes, and have cost many human lives.
This week, the Korean vessel Insung 3 was met with an unexpected reception when it returned to port in Busan and was branded ILLEGAL by Greenpeace activists. The action highlighted its recent conviction for illegal fishing for toothfish in Argentinian waters. The ship is believed to be carrying some 60 tonnes of illegally caught toothfish.
But that ship is just part of a bigger picture. The conviction came after the vessel and its sister ship Insung 7 were locked in a dispute with the Korean Government. Both vessels had been showing suspicious behaviour inside Argentina's waters, where they had no permission to fish. (The Insung 7 has previously been fined for fishing four times its catch limit in Antarctica's Ross Sea). The Korean Government refused to issue catch certificates but the vessels continued to fish. Eventually, the company attemped to use the ships' crew as pawns, telling the government they wouldn't put in to port until they were issued catch certificates for the fish they had already caught.
More:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/koreas-fishing-crime-wave/blog/50938/
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