LIVE: Greenpeace activists are now confronting the world’s second largest factory fishing trawler, the FV Margiris, as it arrives in Australia.
The activists are calling on the Australian Government to refuse to grant a fishing license to the FV Margiris and introduce a policy to ban all super trawlers from Australian waters.
Super trawlers use an indiscriminate fishing method which can decimate fish stocks and kill turtles, dolphins, seals and other marine animals. Their super-size allows them to literally vacuum up entire schools of fish. You could fly a Jumbo Jet through the opening of its net with room to spare.
And there’s a New Zealand connection. It has been revealed that two New Zealanders have a controlling interest in the ship.
Peter and Donna Simunovich are major shareholders of the joint venture which is operating the Margiris in South Australian waters. Peter Suminovich, who managed his family’s company Simunovich Fisheries before it was sold to Sanford, is also a director of one of the two companies in the joint venture.
Wherever these super trawlers go, they leave devastated fisheries in their wake. They have overfished European waters, collapsed fisheries in the South Pacific, and devastated fishing communities in West Africa. We simply can’t let the same thing happen in Australia.
The Australian Government has the power to stop the Margiris before the plunder begins. Tens of thousands of Australians have already told the Government to stop the super trawler, and public outrage from a broad range of communities there - from environmental groups to recreational fishermen - continues to grow at the Australian Government’s failure to act.
Australians are rightly outraged by the appearance of the giant factory trawler in their waters. And the Kiwi connection brings shame on New Zealand. We too should renounce these super trawlers and ban them from our waters.