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IUU fishing vessel F/V Premier denied permission to offload in Mauritius

Just weeks after the South Korean tuna purse seiner F/V Premier was denied port services by the Seychelles Government due to its involvement in IUU fishing, it has now been refused permission to offload its catch in Port Louis in Mauritius.

Since the vessel was first reported to be fishing illegally in Liberian waters in November 2011 Stop Illegal Fishing and the FISH-i Africa network have been monitoring the vessel’s activities and movements.  With the assistance of the Trygg Mat Analytical Unit, they observed that, after being denied access to port in Victoria on March 26th, the Premier showed movements consistent with fishing in international waters to the north east of the Seychelles. Then moved to the north and, between 7th and 9th April, turned off its AIS (a satellite based tracking system) to hide its position.  On 13th April the vessel appeared to be in contact with a Dongwon purse seiner F/V Xixili in international waters to the north east of the Seychelles, which implies possible transhipments between the vessels.  Following this the vessel headed towards Mauritius where she arrived on 19th April.

Prior to arriving in Mauritius the Premier has been involved in a chain of illegal activities which included her owners, Dongwon Industries, providing forged documents to the Government of Kenya in a bid to clear her name and gain access to Kenyan fishing grounds.  Importantly, Kenya and other FISH-i Africa countries were cooperating with Liberia and they have refused to offer fishing licences to the Premier.

It is thanks to the growing strength of cooperation between African countries and with international partners, and to the resolve of African Governments to put an end to illegal fishing that we are seeing vessels such as the Premier being denied vital services.  It is the hope of those working with Stop Illegal Fishing and FISH-i Africa that through actions taken by all governments and effective cooperation IUU fishing will become futile ‚if nobody is prepared to allow illegal fish to be offloaded, or to buy illegal fish, or to sell fishing licences to known illegal fishing vessels ‚then finally illegal fishers will give-up this destructive pursuit.

Stop Illegal Fishing and the FISH-i Africa network commend Mauritius on their decision to stand against illegal fishing.

Photo: The F/V Premier 20th April 2013 – taken by M. Kroese