Transcript
JAMES MOVICK: It started on the Wednesday the 22nd [March] when we, our surveillance centre received the report from a fishing vessel that they had spotted the boats and so the observer on board the vessel was asked by the captain to send that message into us. We alerted the Solomon Islands police authorities and the Solomon Island patrol boat Auki was dispatched the following day on the 23rd Thursday, We solicited for aerial surveillance from the quad partners, the Australian, New Zealand, French and US forces and the French were able to respond and offer an aircraft. And so that was arranged and then that flew in from New Caledonia to Honiara on Friday the 24th. Solomons authorities were very good in giving clearance for the operation to proceed on an urgent basis. And also on the 24th the Friday a report was received by the Solomon Island police and fisheries authorities from villages out in the Santa Ana area that they had spotted boats as well. So we had a good idea of their bearing. The French aircraft spotted the boats on Saturday 25th and Auki was directed to where they were. And they were basically on the reef that they were intending to plunder. And then it [patrol boat Auki] then corralled the boats or tried to corral the boats within the reef. They tried to run away from or escape from the patrol boat. But it was at midnight, according to the reports it was midnight that they boarded the first of these vessels. To undertake a boarding in the middle of the night demonstrates real strong commitment and expertise on the part of the Solomon Islands maritime police officers. I take my hat off to them. The other boats then escaped out of the reefs. They [patrol boat Auki] pursued they were able to during the same night, Sunday morning they were able to board a second vessel. They took all the crew from the two boats off and basically left the boats as I understand and then pursued the other two remaining boats. They lost contact with them because of the cloud situation but later on in the day were able to re-establish contact with one of the boats and were finally able to board that in the afternoon, Sunday afternoon. And with 43 Vietnamese crew onboard in addition to their own crew they were clearly overloaded. So they had to stop and wait for the second patrol boat which had been dispatched from Honiara to catch up with them to relieve them with some of their load and to try and undertake any further search if that was directed, But on the 26th the authorities decided that they would call the search off. For the fourth boat but meanwhile have requested that we alert, as we have, we alert Vanuatu and New Caledonia as other possible areas where that boat may try to go to if she is able to operate on her own which I presume she would be able to and the Auki and the Lata [patrol boats] returned to Honiara with all of the crew [And the three boats]. So I believe they came in on Tuesday, So all in all it is a wonderful story of cooperation using the regional framework and local resources and national resources in order to pinpoint these boats and and finally apprehend them successfully as the Solomon Islands police have been able to do.
KOROI HAWKINS: Yes and we have talked about this before but these boats seemingly are a long way from home have you worked out whether they are operating as a syndicate or individually?
JM: They do appear to head out in groups, in clusters of four or so we do see that. We haven't yet seen any indication of a larger support vessel in the vicinity that might be there to support them.
KH: The introduction into Solomon Islands brings like one more Pacific country that is being poached or has seen these blue boats and you are again going outside of FFA's mandate in assisting and working in this area. Has that now been made part of your mandate?
JM: Pretty much so, I think there is a general understanding and agreement that the regional surveillance framework works for instances such as these boats. And lets not call them blue boats anymore I think we do need to name these boats, These are Vietnamese reef robbers and you know until and unless the government of Vietnam is able to demonstrate and accept responsibility or demonstrate to the world that these are not primarily Vietnamese boats I think we need to direct every effort to them assuming responsibility, So these Vietnamese reef robbers have been a growing problem in the region. I think there is growing recognition that cooperation between the countries enables a better surveillance and enforcement operation to be mounted against them. more successfully. And so I think there is sufficient mandate going forward and we will certainly get this formalised later on in the year. After we have had a chance if this is what national authorities would also like to see. We do need to get national sign off given that the violations are primarily inside the border within the territorial seas on the reefs and islands of the various countries. And so we are having a meeting of the affected countries in the first week of May including attorney generals and senior fisheries officers for us to look at this issue. And agree on a strategy going forward.
The FFA's core mandate is for the surveillance, monitoring and management of the Pacific tuna fisheries but the encroachment of Vietnamese blue boats in the last few years has seen a call for this mandate to be extended to assist Pacific countries in the surveillance of their coastal fisheries as well.
