News
Liberia is successful in apprehending a South Korean Trawler, Nine Star ‚ suspected of fishing illegally in Liberian waters
Stop Illegal Fishing has been informed that another South Korean flagged fishing vessel has been arrested and charged for violating the 2010 Liberian Fisheries Regulations. The F/V NINE STAR is understood to be a trawler licensed to fish in neighbouring Sierra Leone and Guinea. It was reported by local communities to the Bureau of National Fisheries (BNF) on 6 June 2013 that the vessel F/V Nine Star was actively engaged in fishing activities Northwest of Liberia. Liberia Coast Guard (LCG) zodiac boats on stand-by were then deployed in pursuit of the F/V NINE STAR. On arrival, the patrol team found the vessel in the act of fishing, with nets in the water. The F/V NINE STAR was then contacted by the boarding team (LCG and BNF), boarded and arrested.
On Saturday 8 June 2013 at 10:30 in the morning, a joint inspection team led by the BNF (boarding team included BNF, the LCG, the Liberia Maritime Authority (LMA) and Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (BIN)) boarded the F/V NINE STAR. The vessel is presently detained in port in Monrovia awaiting legal hearings. The charges include: fishing without a license, failure to take on board an observer, illegal export of fish, not stowing fishing gear and failure to provide notification to authorities on entry into the Liberian waters.
The arrest is the result of several weeks of investigation and cooperation between local communities, the BNF and LCG in the border region between Liberia and Sierra Leone. Members of the Community Management Association (CMA) located in Robertsport, the largest town in that area, have been working with the BNF and LCG to investigate illegal activities by demersal trawlers. Community reports have repeatedly identified illegal vessels as blackface’ trawlers, the local name in both Liberia and Sierra Leone for South Korean vessels due to their distinctive black hulls and larger size ‚the F/V NINE STAR is of this type.
The vessel is reported to be owned by the South Korean company Seokyung Corporation and the Captain of the vessel is a South Korean national. Stop Illegal Fishing has been advised that the Liberian Government has notified the Government of the Republic of Korea as the flag State of the F/V NINE STAR, and requested their cooperation and assistance with the on-going investigations.
Seokyung Corporation was also the owner of the F/V FIVE STAR, a bottom trawler that allegedly has an outstanding fine in Sierra Leone for transhipping without authorisation on January 18, 2012 (EJF’s Pirate Fishing Exposed). The F/V FIVE STAR was also repeatedly accused of fishing within the Inshore Exclusion Zone (IEZ) by fishermen in the Bonthe area in Sierra Leone in 2011. Fishermen in Liberia allege that it fished without a license in that country’s IEZ several times in November and December 2011 (http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2012/01/201212554311540797.html).
This is yet another IUU fishing violation by a South Korean vessel in Africa, yet there are indications that it may not be the last. Crucially, the investigations carried out by the BNF, LCG and local communities in Liberia indicated that there are more than one South Korean blackface’ trawler operating illegally in the area where the F/V Nine Star was arrested. It underlines the importance for South Korea to continue with its stated intention to revise and amend national policy and legislation as a means to help deal with the non-compliant elements of its distant water fishing fleet as well as non-compliant fishing companies, and to also work with and support local authorities to address illegal fishing activities by Korean vessels.
Stop Illegal Fishing encourages South Korea to open a dialogue with African partners through the Stop Illegal Fishing working group to look for sustainable solutions to curb the problem of IUU fishing in Africa.
Stop Illegal Fishing 13 June 2013