NFA board to decide ownership of forfeited boats

FISHERIES Minister Mao Zeming says the national fisheries board will decide on the ownership of foreign fishing boats that were forfeited to the State recently for illegal fishing.
Zeming said the Alotau District Court forfeited two boats to the State for fishing illegally in Milne Bay.
Zeming said the NFA board would also soon decide when the moratorium of the harvesting of beche-de-mers (sea cucumbers) would be lifted
Milne Bay Governor Titus Philemon had queried if the boats, now anchored at Sanderson Habour in Alotau, could be given to the provincial government.
Philemon also queried about the lifting of the moratorium of the harvesting of beche-de-mers.
He said that that people in the maritime province depended on beche-de-mers for a living.
Philemon thanked the Government for returning their customary land to the villagers on Woodlark Island after almost 120 years.
About 90 per cent of their customary land was acquired by the colonial government for development purposes in the late 1800s without the knowledge of the islanders.
The action of the colonial government has rendered the villagers landless on their own land.