4 - Sunday. September 2 1990 - North Spore News Twentieth century buccaneers and plunder the dying ON BOARD the Sea Shepherd — Our objective was a wide band of deep water roughly 1,000 miles north of Hawait. Except for two seamouths — Harris and Tittman — the waters average about 2,800 fathoms. There are few places on earth where you can be further removed from land. Yet at this time of year, this vast, remote tract of ocean is populated by hundreds, if not possibly more than a thousand, ships: the mighty Asia driftnet fleet scouring the seas with nets 35 and sometimes 40 miles long, reaching 45 feet below the surface. Efforts to rid the oceans of drifinets have so far amounted to legal and political manoeuvres. A court action in the U.S. led to the expulsion of the Japanese salmon driftnet Neet from American waters in 1988. Canada was also forced to abandon its deepsea driftnet research efforts because of the carnage caused by the nets. South Pacific countries have adopted a Convention banning driftnet fishing within an 8- million-square-kilometre area. The Convention aiso forbids the resupplying of driftnet fleets and the trans-shipment of any of their catches. In December last year, the United Nations adopted Resolu- tion 44/225, which calls for an — fa DRIFTNETS immediate ban on driftnetting in parts of the oceans where it is not alrady being practised and a halt to driftnetting in the South Pacific by 1992. But a loophole in the UN reso- lution allows driftnetting to con- tinue in the North Pacific if “conservation and management’ programs are putin place. Last month, Japan announced that it was shutting down its driftnet operations in the South Pacific ahead of schedule, but made no mention of the North Pacific. Fears have been expressed that the ships normally at work in southern waters will simply be deployed northward. For years, Canada and the U.S. Bob Hunter ECOLOGIC have pressed for fimits on drift- netting through the International North Pacific Fisheries Commis- sion, but with limited success. Such limitations as these are concern how tar north and east the driftnet fleets may go during which months. Essentially, all thes do is follow the squid and salmon on theic annual migration, ignor- ing those areas where it would be of little profitability to fish any- way. The exceptions are the 200-mile commercial fishing zones off the shores of countries ringing the Seas Pacific. Phese areas are subject to tight controls in an effort to con- serve Pacific salon. The controls are so tight that, as every West Coast fisherman knows, if is growing steadily more dificult tu make a living from fishing. Thus, the deep-felt antagonism toward nations like Japan, which forbids the use of driftnets within its own 200-mile limit, but allows its fleet to plunder the open seas indiscriminately. The result of this totally selfish acitivity has been the interception on the high seas of at feast one million North American salmon and steethead trout, a decline in the U.S, tuna catch from 34 mil- lion to two million pounds over the last eight years, the predicted total collapse of South Pacific albacore tuna stocks within two or three years, as well as the destruc: tion of tens of thousands of marine mammals, including doJphins, porpoises, whales, seals, sea lions and otters, and over one million sea birds. That's the confirmed incidental kill for just a fraction of the driftnet fleet, The projections for the entire fleet are borne out by these figures. In the North Pacific alone, 20,000 to 30,000 Dall’s porpoises die in the nets every year, along with 50,000 Northern fur seals, and probably one milhon sea birds. including albatrosses, shearwaters and murres. Rather than the vtuation vetting better. itis getting wore. The threat to the ocean lfe-system from the Japanese, Taiwanese and South Koreans has been substan- ually increased by the addition of a huge new North Korean driftaet fleet. The ‘Sorth Koreans were caught a coupie of months ago in American waters near the Aleutian Islands by a Russian ship, acting at the request of Canada and the U.S. When the Russians asked for the passports of the crews, they discovered thai almost every single man aborad was a Japanese citi- zen. It is no exaggeration when David Suzuki describes the drift- net fleet thus: *‘Japan’s great fishing fleets are made up of 20th-century buc- caneers who ply the seven seas plundering them of enormous quantities of protein. Japanese driftnets form a barrier extending thousands of kilometres down the centre of the Pacific Ocean in- tercepting fish, birds and mam- mais alike. It is sheer piracy that threatens the ecological balance of the oceans.”” ON SALE — MONDAY SEPTEMBER 3 OPEN — LABOUR DAY 9:30am ~ 9:00pm ES Hours: © 9:30am-9:00 p.m. Monday to Friday No Rainchecks. LYNN VALLey CenTRE 980- 934 *9:39am-6:00pm Saturday * 11.00am.5.00pm Sunday Quantities are limited. We reserve the right to limit quantities.