AUSTRALIA has urged fellow members of a 24-nation Antarctic conservation commission to boost diplomatic efforts to halt illegal fishing in the world's Southern oceans, the Australian newspaper Northern territory news reported.
”We need to increase substantially diplomatic pressure to ensure that there's full global cooperation in trying to stop illegal fishing and therefore the exploitation and potentially the destruction of one aspect of the Antarctic ecosystem,” Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer reportedly said.
“I think it's fair to say that the greatest concern we have about the Antarctic convergence zone, the Antarctic region, at the moment, is illegal fishing,” said Mr Downer, in Hobart to open a meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).
Mr Downer said Australia would put a resolution to the annual commission meeting calling for a crackdown on fishing by vessels using "flags of convenience" from nations that have not signed the commission's treaties.
“We'd like the international community to be much more robust in protecting the fragile Antarctic ecosystem, including its marine ecosystem,” he said.
Thirty-two governments have signed the commission's convention, though only 24 states are members of the Hobart-based body, including the United States, the European Union, Russia, Japan, Chile and South Africa.
Australia has waged an intensive campaign against illegal fishing in its southern waters, notably for the Patagonian Toothfish. Australian Fisheries Minister Ian Macdonald said this week's meeting needed to send a strong message that anyone caught illegally fishing would be prosecuted and jailed.
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