Pacific Nations Put Pressure on Japan, Taiwan; Ask Gill Net Ban

TARAWA, Kiribati — Fifteen South Pacific nations alarmed at the depletion of tuna stocks by gill net fishing today asked help to force Japan and Taiwan to end the practice known as the “wall of death.”

In Spain, fishermen and Greenpeace activists today tried to block the port of Cartagena to protest the government’s failure to stop the illegal use of gill nets in the Mediterranean.

The Pacific leaders are alarmed that gill net fishing, also called drift net fishing, is ravaging fish stocks and threatening the Pacific’s economic future, said Cook Islands Prime Minister Geoffrey Henry. Henry, briefing reporters after the opening session of a two-day annual conference of the South Pacific Forum on this South Pacific island, said the Pacific island nations back an Australian proposal for an international convention banning gill net fishing.

The technique uses nets up to 30 miles long and 50 feet deep, which are set adrift by fishing boats for later collection. It has been likened to strip mining of the ocean.