Capt. Chuck Handy, is a former 1st mate of Ron Hamlin and Don Tyson. Here is his first-hand report:
"Overfishing In the Western Pacific… A Rant
Or
Where Is A Good Investigative Reporter When You Really Need One?
Ahoy Crew!
As you know, I recently returned to the RMI (Republic of the Marshall Islands) after a seven month absence which found me voyaging to and from Fiji aboard my sailboat, the “Deev”. While in Fiji I flew to the west coast of the US and down to the West Indies. It was a great trip. But now it is really nice to be back in the RMI and I am once again putting together some small solar power projects and water purification projects for my old friend Neal Skinner. He also has some 2000 square feet of building to add on to his existing physical plant. These projects should keep us busy and entertained for the foreseeable future!
I’m used to seeing fishing vessels in the Majuro lagoon as the Western Pacific holds the last underexploited stocks of Yellowfin and Bigeye Tuna. I’m afraid that the term “underexploited” is, perhaps, no longer applicable as the Bigeye have already been listed as endangered in this fishery. I was shocked to see the sheer numbers of commercial fishing vessels when I returned to the lagoon. There was and are 8-12 mother ships here at all times. These mother ships are large vessels that get loaded by huge purse seiners and carry away hundreds of tons of tuna on a daily basis to the markets in Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Honolulu among other places. The purse seining industry has been banned in much of the world because that type of fishing causes serious ecological damage to the oceans. Caught up in their nets are numerous other species such as Marlin, Sailfish and Porpoises along with their target species. Nothing survives the pulling of these massive nets.
The nations of the Western Pacific, including the RMI, Federated States of Micronesia and Kiribiti, get some remuneration for the exploitation of this resource but nothing compared to the market value of the fish. (One positive aside for me is that I can buy beautiful fresh Tuna Loin and Steaks for $2.00/lb in the local market and Sashimi Grade Yellowfin for under $5.00!) I have a feeling that someone, somewhere, may be getting a little something under the table but I have no proof of that. The numbers, in terms of money spent, money earned and the tonnage of the fish is staggering. We are talking about billions of dollars here. I kid you not.
There are all kinds of scams going on here as well. The purse seiners are supposed to stay in certain areas where they are licensed to fish and none of that is near the islands themselves as there are millions of square miles of open ocean out here. Yesterday two purse seiners were seen setting their nets within a mile or two of the pass into Majuro Lagoon. I guess they just wanted to top off their fish holds before they offloaded to the mother ship. Boats are regularly being fined for fishing in areas where they are not supposed to be and I’m sure that those that are caught are just the tip of the iceberg.
Another scam is the “American Captain” scam. It seems that at one point there were so many foreign boats and crews here that the powers that be decided they needed a larger and more visible US presence. It was decided that American captains were required on a certain number of boats. The foreign owners hired American captains as figureheads and satisfied the ruling. The US captain has nothing to do whatever with the running of the ship or its fishing. That is all controlled by the fishing master. The American captain is simply there and does nothing. One of the captains told me that other than it being very boring it was the best job he ever had! His only lament was that he had no one to talk to for a month or more at a time because no one else on the boat spoke English!
Friends of mine have remarked that they feel that the boats here now realize that the resource has almost been brought to the point that it is unsustainable in the near future and they are just trying to grab whatever they can now while they still can. Let’s hope that it isn’t so.
From the edge of the world,
Cheers!
Chuck"
