NFA calls for united effort

By MOUA OMOA
COOPERATION among enforcement agencies along the coastal borders will help police combat illegal activities more effectively, National Fisheries Authority enforcement team leader Gisa Komangin says.
Komangin said there had been various shipments of illegal fisheries from the country and they were looking at combining the efforts of border enforcement agencies such as customs, police, defence and fisheries enforcement officers to monitor ships at all ports in the country.
“We have a three-year ban on beche-de-mer and we have bans on shark fins and fish-maw and, last year, we penalised two logging ships in Port Moresby for attempting to ship out these illegal fisheries.
“This year we did the same to a tug boat at a logging camp in Wewak and we tried to detain another barge at Vanimo and wanted to do a search but we were directed not to because of some political implications,” Komangin said.
He said illegal activities were going on in PNG waters such as ships carrying illegal goods in and out of the country. Cooperation among enforcement agencies would mean better control measures.
NFA has 16 enforcement officers currently tasked to look after all the ports in the country and Komangin said funding or recruiting was not enough to boost manpower and enhance patrol work and enforcement duties at  borders.
“We already have a MoU in place with police and we are currently working to do the same with customs and the Defence Force so we can work together to put a control on all illegal and unreported (IEO) and unregulated activities.
“We have been providing training for line enforcement agencies since 2011 on NFA’s fishery investigations and prosecutions and it has been successful for officers from customs, police and defence,” he said.
The NFA enforcement unit conduct 150 days of patrol a year for three to 12 miles along the coast and the 200-mile exclusive economic zone but this depends on the availability of navy vessels.