Reuters AlertNet Lite - Australia boosts fines for illegal foreign fishers

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Australia boosts fines for illegal foreign fishers

26 Nov 2003 00:18:31 GMT

CANBERRA, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Foreign vessels caught fishing illegally in Australian waters will face heftier fines and have to pay the costs of any pursuit under new laws being introduced to the Australian parliament this week.

The crackdown comes after Australian authorities spent 21 days in August chasing a Uruguayan-flagged boat suspected of poaching rare Patagonian toothfish through Antarctic seas. The chase, which ended off South Africa, cost about A$5 million.

Fisheries Minister Ian Macdonald said the conservative government wanted to increase fines for foreign crew caught fishing illegally on vessels larger than 25 metres to A$835,000 ($594,000) from A$550,000.

The proposed new laws would also allow the Australian government to recover the cost of pursuit and apprehension of foreign illegal fishing vessels.

"That will be a very extended deterrent to those who would fish illegally in Australian waters," Macdonald told reporters.

Macdonald said this would enable the government to look more closely at the corporate structures behind organised fleets of illegal fishing vessels and take civil proceedings around the world to recover the money.

"We hope in this way we may put some of them out of business and send a very strong message to others that Australia will simply not tolerate illegal fishing in its waters," he said.

The 3,900-nautical mile chase after for the Uruguayan-flagged Viarsa in August highlighted the plight of the increasingly rare toothfish, a delicacy prized in Asia and the United States, but also the declining state of the world's over-exploited fisheries.

Armed fisheries officers stormed the Viarsa and escorted the vessel back to Australia where five crew members have been charged with illegal fishing and face fines of up to A$550,000.

Australia is at the forefront of a campaign against illegal fishing, earlier this month spearheading a trial by seven countries to install and test tracking systems on fishing boats to curb illegal fishing in remote waters. ($1=A$1.39)

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