The Fong Seong Fisheries Group posted a $100,000 bond earlier last week to secure release of the vessel from Majuro after it was charged with 29 counts of breaking fisheries regulations in the Marshall Islands.
The multiple violations slapped on Fong Seong Fishery Group’s purse seine fishing boat FV Taumoana are a rare enforcement action taken by the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority. The charges suggest that problems with the fishing vessel have been occurring regularly but were only recently reported by an onboard observer.
High Court Judge James Plasman ordered Fong Seong to post a $350,000 bond to continue using the vessel while the court process proceeds. The company has paid $100,000 to the High Court, and is required to pay the balance in two more installments prior to June 1. “Failure to make any payment shall result in the forfeiture of funds previously posted, and shall subject any vessel owned and operated by Fong Seong Fisheries Group to immediate seizure by the government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands,” Plasman said.
Fong Seong has a number of vessels licensed to fish in the Marshall Islands.
The charges filed against the FV Taumoana and its fishing master Yeh Po Wen carry a maximum penalty of $4,020,000.
Late last month, Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority Director Glen Joseph sent a letter to Fong Seong advising it of 29 violations, and giving it the option of settling the matter through administrative proceedings. But when the vessel was preparing to depart Majuro after Joseph had presented the notice of violations, the fisheries department went to court to get a restraining order and bond levied.
The vessel’s fishing master repeatedly prevented Marshall Islands fisheries observer Fred McKay from doing his job while on board the vessel late last year, court papers said. On-board observers are a requirement for all purse seiners fishing in the Pacific as a result of management rules recently implemented by the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, a consortium of eight central and western Pacific nations that control water where 25 percent of the world’s tuna is caught.
Joseph also accused the vessel of failing to report that it dumped back into the ocean undersized tuna — another condition of fishing in the Marshall Islands.
The Marshall Islands’ Fisheries Enforcement Act and license agreement with Fong Seong requires fishing vessels to allow designated observers to go inside the bridge of the vessel to check vessel monitoring system computers and global position system gear. The charges say that Wen refused to allow McKay to enter the bridge throughout a fishing trip in November and December last year.
Joseph put Fong Seong on notice that the fisheries department is “still investigating into other numerous incidents where FV Taumoana discarded tuna without reporting. This includes obstruction of other observers by Mr. Wen on numerous occasions.”
McKay in a statement included in the court file said that he had been told by other observers “that the fishing master never allows them to go inside the bridge.” He said the fishing master also assaulted an observer from Kiribati. No court date has been set, and the matter could be resolved short of a trial if an agreement can be negotiated.
