The Cook Islands government is investigating serious alleged breaches of the Marine Resources Act by a Cook Islands-flagged vessel fishing in the Indian Ocean.
The vessel was reportedly detected fishing inside a closed area on at least two occasions in the first few months of this year.
Photo: 123RF
After boarding and inspection, the vessel was permitted to return to sea and remains closely monitored by Ministry of Marine Resources staff.
The ministry was informed that vessel crew changes might be made by the operating company, which was also conducting its own internal investigation.
The Ministry's director of offshore, Tim Costelloe, would comment on the specific details of the case, but said the importance of the closed areas in terms of their ecology and biodiversity was of the utmost priority to the Cook Islands.
He said the ministry was disappointed that the actions of a local vessel had undermined all the work that had been done over the last 12 years.
Since 2006, the Cook Islands has heavily promoted the closure of large areas in the Indian Ocean to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems from exploitation and damage by commercial fishing, and has actively championed protected areas with a total area larger than all of the existing closed areas in the Pacific.
These large 'Benthic Protected Areas' are closed to all Cook Islands, Australian, Japanese and Thai fishing vessels by mutual agreement between these nations.