Canadians Vs The Us And Eu? :d

[Jaffa]

Newt, better get back in uniform; the Canadians are coming!

 

If we ask nicely, maybe they would come and protect Rockall and our continental slopes while they are at it!

 

Link

 

Tuesday, December 6th, 2005

Custodial fisheries management more than Canada could handle: expert

 

 

 

PETTY HARBOUR, N.L. (CP) - Both Prime Minister Paul Martin and Conservative Leader Stephen Harper say they're ready to take on the world when it comes to foreign overfishing off Canada's East Coast.

 

But critics say both men, fired up by the federal election campaign, are flirting with diplomatic disaster. Martin has said that when it comes to the rich fishing grounds in international waters beyond Canada's 200-mile limit, "Canada will follow the rule of law and Canada expects the world to establish that law."

 

But if that doesn't happen, "then we will take over custodial management off the nose and tail of the Grand Banks," both of which are part of the shallow continental shelf that extends just beyond Canada's jurisdiction.

 

The prime minister, who has been warned that such a move could have serious diplomatic and even military repercussions, has declined requests to clarify his remarks.

 

On Tuesday, Harper said he would take immediate steps toward imposing custodial management over the nose and tail of the Grand Banks.

 

"I understand there are serious legal implications of this," Harper said as he campaigned in Petty Harbour, a postcard-perfect fishing village a short drive south of St. John's.

 

But Harper stressed the country's national interests are at stake.

 

There are different versions of what custodial management would mean. If Harper and Martin mean unilaterally taking over management of the fishery in international waters, it would violate at least two international laws ratified by Canada, warns one expert.

 

"It's politically easy to suggest it . . . (but) a lot more difficult to implement it," said Phillip Saunders, dean of the Dalhousie University law school in Halifax.

 

Under the current rules, Canadian vessels can patrol the area, board ships and hand out citations to potential violators of international fishing rules. But they're enforcing the rules and quotas of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization, an international organization that has been widely criticized in Canada as a toothless body to has done little to curb overfishing on the high seas.

 

In international waters, Canadian Fisheries officers can't order foreign vessels to Canadian ports for investigation or try violators in Canadian courts.

 

Under custodial management, that would change.

 

Foreign fishing vessels would be allowed to continue fishing, but they would do so under the management and enforcement of Canadian officials.

 

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans and the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador have all pushed for custodial management.

 

However, internal briefing notes prepared for Martin warn that extending Canadian control in the North Atlantic could lead to political, legal and military consequences.

 

"Our goal is an improved NAFO, where conservation goals are stronger, compliance is improved and violations are acted upon promptly and appropriately by member countries," say briefing notes obtained by The Canadian Press.

 

To be sure, if Canada were to enforce its own rules beyond the 200-mile limit without the agreement of other flag states, "they're going to run into the problem that those other counties will enforce the right to protect their vessels," Saunders said.

 

Both the European Union and the United States have voiced objections to such a move.

 

The EU supports improving management and enforcement under NAFO, said Roy Christensen, spokesman for the EU delegation in Canada.

 

 

Canadian Press

[Newt]

We are doomed now. The Canadian Navy will be attacking us next.

 

Why, oh why, do those folks want to control the rest of the world and dictate their behavior?

 

We in the US would certainly never dream of acting in such a unilateral fashion. Nope. Never. Not us.

 

Truth be told and I not only understand why they say they want to do this, I hope the end result is managed fishing out further on the Grand Banks than is now the case.

[Jaffa]

Truth be told and I not only understand why they say they want to do this, I hope the end result is managed fishing out further on the Grand Banks than is now the case.

I understand your new disguise now

 

Sadly I should aparently be on the the "other" side fighting the Canadians evil allies - vikings:

 

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1163451.ece

 

Norway sticks to Svalbard policy

Despite international friction, both politicians and legal experts are convinced that Norway's position on protecting the disputed zone around Svalbard is correct.

 

Professor Carl August Fleischer believes that international conventions fully support Norway's administration of the Svalbard zone.

PHOTO: Bendiksby, Terje

Related stories:

Norway mounts crackdown on illegal Arctic fishing - 21.11.2005

Barents talks set - 10.11.2005

Ambassador urges more protection for the Arctic - 08.11.2005

Two Russian vessels arrested - 24.10.2005

Norwegian evidence rejected - 21.10.2005

Runaway trawler reaches Russian waters - 19.10.2005

Diplomats try to solve 'crisis' - 18.10.2005

Barents full of political sensitivities - 18.10.2005

 

Law Professor Carl August Fleischer said that both Iceland and Spain have threatened several times to take Norway's jurisdiction in the fishery zone around Svalbard to the international tribunal in The Hague, but that this has not happened and is unlikely to succeed.

 

Fleischer argues that the Norwegian zone around Svalbard differs from the full economic zone around the Norwegian coast, and is instead a non-discriminatory protection zone.

 

In the years since the policy began, international conventions have evolved that strengthen Norway's stance, Fleischer said.

 

The United Nations convention from 1982, which Iceland, Norway, Russia and Spain have signed, defines laws of the sea.

 

"It is this convention that establishes that is not just a right of a coastal state, but also a duty to be in charge of a defensible management of resources in the economic zone and on the continental shelf," Fleischer said.

 

Meanwhile Spain's European Union partners insisted that it was up to Spain to investigate suspicion of illegal fishing, not Norway, after a Spanish trawler was caught and fined by Norwegian authorities in Svalbard.

 

Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre held fast to Norway's increasingly tough policy on violations of fishing quotas and environmental agreements in the region.

 

"The EU has respected our right to establish quotas. Then we must emphasize that if respect for these quotas is to be maintained, they must be enforced then and there," Støre said.

 

"I have no ground to claim that they (Spain) do not take this seriously but what can be done when the boat docks weeks later and the catch is gone? The log can be changed," Støre said.

 

Spain has again warned that they may take up the question of Norwegian sovereignty in the region to The Hague, but Støre said that since Spain hasn't done this, it is because they see the inadequacy of their case

 

Gawd these Norwegians; no respect!

[Newt]

I don't normally comment on the various threads here about illegal and damaging practices by commercial fishing vessels but I think I'll take the opportunity here to make a position statement.

 

I'm simply very much in favor of fisheries being well managed to keep them viable and productive and if that angers other nations, so be it.

 

I think the Canadian position is that they want to protect the fishery further out than they could do by current law and they intend to do just that.

 

If it angers the US, we'll get over it.

If it angers the EU, they'll get over it.

If the fishery dies, none of us will get over it.

 

In the best of all possible worlds, I'd live to see the UN operate a fleet of fishery patrol vessels with the right to search any flag fishing vessels and to seize any that were in clear violation of the rules or to sink them if they refused search or seizure. We could do well to give the Coast Guard ships we now have dedicated to fishery patrol to the UN as could the other maritime nations.

 

I served 27 years in the US Navy & US Coast Guard with assignments to vessels that tried to deal with drug smuggling and to vessels that tried to deal with illegal fishing. While we could fire a shot across the bow of a suspected druggy if needed to get their attention, we could not do so with 'foreign flag' fishing ships and that always struck me as a shame. Law enforcement occasionally calls for strong measures and if you can take them when needed, they are needed far less often. I can still remember being stationed in Spain in the mid-60s when La Guardia Civil was known to shoot you if you messed with them. Almost no one messed with them.

 

[Leon Roskilly]

Australia is at it too

 

 

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD131312.htm

 

FEATURE-Australia battles illegal fishing in north, south

07 Dec 2005 01:00:55 GMT

 

Source: Reuters

 

By Michelle Nichols

 

CANBERRA, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Leaning over the edge of their rickety wooden fishing boat the Indonesian fishermen attach long sharpened pieces of bamboo to the side of the vessel in a bid to fend off an Australian navy patrol boat pursuing them.

 

Warning shots are fired across the bow of the rogue fishing boat as a navy inflatable vessel tries in vain to pull alongside.

 

The lengthy chase is eventually called off and the Indonesian fishing boat escapes, probably with a valuable catch below, but another 220 other fishing boats haven't been so lucky this year.

 

A crackdown on illegal fishing by the Australian government has seen 1,760 crew apprehended and their boats destroyed. A total of 432 masters and senior crew have been charged with offences, with lower order crew sent straight back to Indonesia.

 

Another 242 boats, illegally fishing for shark fin, have also been intercepted and ordered out of Australian waters and their fishing gear confiscated.

 

"I'd like to see the day when Indonesian fishermen don't come into our waters," Fisheries Minister Ian Macdonald told Reuters in a statement.

 

"But until that happens we will just keep arresting them and sending the message that we don't tolerate people pinching our fish stocks."

 

Indonesian fishermen, are venturing into Australian waters to fish for lucrative shark fin because they have depleted their own stocks. Shark fin is a delicacy in Asia and can earn Indonesian fishermen a small fortune of up to A$200 ($148) a kilo.

 

Australian National University Professor James Fox said that villagers on the Indonesian island of Roti had told him that more than 100 men had died on fishing trips to Australian waters during the past two years.

 

"There are now well over 400 bodhi (shark fishing) boats that sail regularly on a weekly basis into Australian waters," Fox told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

 

Some Indonesian fishermen have tried to avoid capture by brandishing burning poles, knives and machetes, the Australian government has said.

 

TREACHEROUS CHASE

 

Australia has spent tens of millions of dollars boosting its border security with several new patrol boats and more customs officers in the north and by arming its boat in the remote Southern Ocean with a deck-mounted machine gun.

 

Australia is not only trying to fight illegal fishing on its doorstop, but also internationally and recently co-sponsored a report that found that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing was worth around $1.2 billion a year.

 

The report, The Changing Nature of High Seas Fishing, was presented to the United Nations in Geneva last month and found that 15 percent of the world's large-scale fishing fleet fly flags of convenience (FOC) or flags with unknown identities.

 

"It costs only a few hundred dollars to buy an FOC and with that FOC vessels and fishing companies are free to catch millions of dollars worth of fish and threaten other forms of marine life on the high seas with impunity," the report said.

 

It names Belize, Honduras, Panama and St Vincent and the Grenadines as the top five flag of convenience countries.

 

Australia has problems with FOC vessels fishing in its remote southern waters for Patagonian Toothfish, also known as Chilean Sea Bass.

 

"The amount of pirate fishing in that neck of the woods has drastically decreased," Macdonald said.

 

Canberra's campaign against illegal fishing was spurred by a 21-day chase through treacherous icy seas in August 2003.

 

Australia spent A$5 million chasing the vessel seen fishing in Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone around Heard and McDonald islands and the edge of the Antarctic ice shelf, 4,000 km (2,500 miles) southwest of the West Australia coast.

 

A 92-tonne catch of Toothfish was found on the Uruguayan ship when it was finally caught off South Africa and escorted back to Australia, but in a blow to Australia's crackdown the five crew were cleared of illegal fishing last month.

 

The white, flaky flesh of the rare fish, dubbed "white gold", is in high demand in Asia and the United States and one shipload is worth up to A$5 million.

 

Marine conservationists have warned the toothfish could become commercially extinct by 2007 because illegal fishing above the quotas was already depleting dwindling stocks.

 

QUARANTINE THREAT

 

Australia appears to be winning the fight against illegal fishing in its southern waters, but it has had to step up its presence in its northern waters to combat hundreds of illegal fishing boats from Indonesia.

 

Macdonald has already raised the issue of illegal fishing with Indonesia and is due to hold talks on the issue again with Australia's northern neighbour before the end of the year. Concerns have also been raised about the quarantine risk posed by illegal Indonesian fishermen reaching the Australian mainland.

 

While the cases of Indonesian fishermen reaching the mainland have been rare, main opposition Labor leader Kim Beazley said it still showed Australia's maritime security was not up to scratch.

 

"It's completely unacceptable that anybody is making un-quarantined landfall," Beazley has said. "It's got to stop. And, of course, if you can do that for illegal fishing purposes, you can do that for terrorist purposes as well."

 

http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1523486.htm

 

Last Updated 05/12/2005, 17:35:36 Select text size:

 

 

Reports from Indonesia suggest increasing numbers of illegal fishermen are dying while operating in Australian waters.

 

Our reporter, Katrina Bolton, says the Indonesian Island of Roti is a main launching point for small, fast moving, shark fishing boats, known as bodis or death cheaters.

 

Villagers on Roti have told Australian National University professor, James Fox, that more than 100 of their men have died on fishing trips to Australian waters over the past two years.

 

Just over a month ago, the Australian government announced the capture of the 200th Indonesian fishing boat this year.

 

Professor Fox says that is a fraction of the boats leaving Roti.

 

"There are now well over 400 bodi boats that sail regularly on a weekly basis into Australian waters," he said.

 

Professor Fox says that number would be even higher if the current fuel prices had not made it too expensive for many fishermen to reach Australian waters.

[captain cojones]

Newt. The Franco regime might not be the best to learn from

 

they are still in charge of fishery protection today, they are also those responsible for checking coarse fishing licences.

i have on occasion translated for peoplewho have fallen foul of them, you still wouldnt want to get on the wrong side of them today either!!

cheers dave.

[Tony U]

Yes Dave is right dont even think about fishing without a licence with these guys (the Guardia Civil), around.

Mind you they did give me a lift back to our Villa once when I could not get a taxi, they must have been on a public relations exercise that weekend.