Calls for crackdown after illegal fishers abandon boat on Bali reef

A 30-metre Taiwanese vessel, found abandoned on a Balinese reef badly damaged and leaking oil, has compelled WWF to issue a renewed call for the countries of the Coral Triangle to impose and enforce more stringent monitoring and accountability measures to cut down on illegal fishing.

The boat, which is thought to have been involved in illegal fishing activities, has been pushed out of the wave impact zone, reducing fears that it may break up, but complicating attempts to remove it.

The vessel, off popular Padang Padang beach, will likely remain stranded, amid efforts to clean up the fuel spillage threatening wildlife and affecting tourism, with reports of the oil slick reaching the length of the surfing peninsula.

"Apparently there's fishing hooks, lines, nets, debris from the boat all over the reef," said Mike O’Leary, founder of the Rivers, Oceans, Lakes & Ecology (ROLE) Foundation, which runs marine projects in the region.

It is thought that, prior to being caught on the reef and subsequently looted, the boat contained illegally fished shark and tuna.

This is not the first time this vessel has been involved in such illicit activities, having been caught off the coast of Costa Rica in 2003 with 60 tons of shark fin, and again this year fishing in the pacific.

This weeks news highlights that efforts to prevent illicit fishing activities have been unsuccessful, making it all but impossible to manage fish stocks.

The region, site of many key WWF projects, is widely recognised as the most important area of marine biodiversity on the planet, and is often referred to as the nursery of the seas.

Insufficient monitoring means that the region is susceptible to activities that could destabilise its unique marine biodiversity, a system that directly sustains the lives of nearly 130 million people across six countries of south-east Asia

“The health of the Coral Triangle is critical to the livelihoods of millions of people and it is crucial that adequate management systems are in place to prevent the kinds of scenes we have seen in Bali over the last week, and to reduce the threat of oil spills and overfishing,” said the leader of WWF’s Coral Triangle Program, Lida Pet Soede.

The sustainable management of these locations is especially important, and particularly difficult, as over-exploitation of marine resources is exacerbated by a combination of extreme dependence of coastal economies, population growth and poverty.

“It is crucial that we properly manage the Coral Triangle’s unique marine wilderness for the benefit of the whole planet,“ Ms Soede said.