SOUTH KOREA: The wanted South Korean fishing boat that was been searched for by New Zealand, having cloaked up nearly half a million dollars in fines has been found in South America.
Environmental group Greenpeace says Oyang 75, accused of pirate fishing internationally, is now at a dock in Montevideo, the River Plate capital of Uruguay.
New Zealand courts have already ordered the 23-year-old ship forfeited to the Crown but its owners, Sajo Oyang, paid a bond so they could continue to operate the vessel until the case was settled. Worth an estimated $10 million, it has occasionally turned up in Indian and Atlantic ocean ports with tuna catch.
After it was arrested in Lyttelton on illegal fishing charges, its officers were fined in the Christchurch District Court a total of $424,500. The fines have not been paid and legal action has now ended. Greenpeace say it is now time to act and get the ship. Co-operation between New Zealand and Uruguay could see the ship seized, Greenpeace oceans campaigner Karli Thomas urged. “This has been going on for years – and it’s high time Oyang 75 was seized and scrapped or sold to responsible owners.” Oyang 75 was bought into New Zealand after an earlier vessel, Oyang 70, sank off the Otago coast with the loss of six men.
The same company owned the 36-year-old trawler Oryong 501 which sank on December 1 in the Bering Sea with the loss of at least 52 men. It had been fishing for Alaska Pollock which, with New Zealand hoki, is the main fish used worldwide in McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish.
