Report illegal fishing: Kasu

By JACKLYN SIRIAS
NATIONAL Fisheries Authority (NFA) managing director John Kasu has urged the public to assist in reporting issues relating to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in the country.
Kasu said the NFA lacked the capacity and resources to address the issue occurring in PNG waters.
“It is actually an issue happening throughout the region. In PNG, we have seen cases happening in coastal areas,” he said.
Kasu said one of the main problems PNG was faced with was surveillance.
“We do not have resources like boats. So we try to share resources with other organisations in the country as well as with our member countries,” he said.
Kasu said in terms of sharing the resources like boats and other surveillance equipment, they had signed memorandum of understanding with a number of organisations and were working with Australia and Indonesia to share resources.
He said the annual regional meeting was one of the avenues “where we have established a body of information and resources sharing among member countries to address the issue collectively”.
Kasu said they also had arrangements with the PNG Defence Force to assist them with resources such as boats to respond to surveillance issues at the maritime borders.