Tristan : Poaching Threatens Tristan da Cunha's Hurricane Recovery
Submitted by Tristan Times (Juanita Brock) 12.06.2005 (Current Article)
Any way you look at it, poachers who steal Tristan da Cunha's lobster as well as other maritime resources and offload them in Cape Town have cost the people hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in lost revenue.
Photos (C) James Glass (Tristan Times) - Calshot Hatbour as it looks today.
POACHING THREATENS TRISTAN DA CUNHA'S HURRICANE RECOVERY
By J. Brock (SARTMA - TdC) with Sarah Glass (Tristan Times)
Calshot Harbour as it is today.
Any way you look at it, poachers who steal Tristan da Cunha's lobster as well as other maritime resources and offload them in Cape Town have cost the people hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in lost revenue.
A potential site for a better, safer harbour.
When tourists visit Tristan many remark that with a valuable fishery, the infrastructure can be a lot better, with a harbour that is more accessible and safer to land people and cargo. However, it is the theft of Tristan's resources that has prevented them from reaching their full potential, not only with the harbour but also with Medical Care, Education, Pension Benefits, Roads and other infrastructure.
Activity that is fisheries related as well as re-supplying the Island is done on small boats and is labour intensive. It would be a smoother operation if the infrastructure were better.
In May 2001, Tristan da Cunha was hit with a hurricane that severely damaged almost every building on the Island. DFID in London responded by giving the island 75,000.00GBP, to help restore Government Buildings that were damaged in the storm, but the repair bill for the islanders far outreached that amount, and friends of Tristan matched that from private contributions, to help the islanders privately. However if there were no poaching in Tristan's waters, the bills would have been paid a long time ago, and the Tristanians would not be continuing to draw down on their reserves approximately 200,000GBP every year to keep the island functioning.
Inside the Community Centre - Prince Philip Hall - just after the hurricane. It has taken five years to raise the money to repair the building.
The five year wait for the Community Centre to function again was a blow to the Islanders. The roof of Prince Philip Hall had to be taken off and replaced with a new one.
A British registered Fishing Company operating out of South Africa that is contracted by the Tristan Government to do the fishing also patrols the Economic Zone that surrounds Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island, approximately 230nm to the South East. But Fisheries Officials on Tristan say that on the management side, it is frustrating to set a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) at the lower end of the replacement range to allow for the amount of resource that is expected to be stolen each year.
Two major challenges for the Tristan Fishery are poaching and access to European markets. Seeing that the EU not only wants quality but also quantity to serve their market for the product, it is the poaching that prevents that access.
Action needs to be taken sooner rather than later to stop poaching around Tristan da Cunha so that the Island can pay their own way for the recovery of infrastructure that was damaged five years ago, and to stop expenditure being more than revenue.
It is well known that fishery patrol is expensive. And, with limited resources, Tristan da Cunha cannot afford a Rolls Royce service. However, a good fisheries patrol system spread between the Islands of Ascension Island, St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha could be well within a joint budget. It has been reported that in the Falkland Islands that the cost per patrol boat is £5,000.00 a day. This news was rather off putting for fisheries officials on St. Helena but according to the Falklands Director of Fisheries, the job could be done for a lot less. In truth, the per diem rate for a fisheries patrol vessel needs to be extremely less in order for it to be affordable for the Islands along the South Atlantic Ridge.
There are several options available including converting a captured poaching vessel with a fast engine to do the task and crewing it with locals who have the proper qualifications. Nonetheless, it is with the co-operation of the other South Atlantic Ridge Islands and advice from neighbouring fisheries, such as the well-managed one in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands that will augment the project and help these Islands regain control over their own fisheries.
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