Dongwon tuna purse seiner. (Photo Credit: Dongwon)

Dongwon ordered to pay USD 2mln to Liberia over lawsuit

The Minister of Agriculture on behalf of the government of Liberia and Dongwon Industries Co Ltd have signed a settlement agreement regarding violations of the 2010 Liberia Fisheries Regulations by Dongwon’s fishing vessels Premier and Solevant.

Liberia’s Bureau of National Fisheries (BNF) has announced that the company has paid a total fine of USD 2 million - USD 1 million to release each purse seine vessel in question of the charges of illegal fishing that included unlicensed fishing activities, undeclared catches and the use of forged Liberian licenses.

Greenpeace has urged the Korean government to investigate Dongwon for its activities and to prosecute it as necessary to prevent the illegal activities from taking place again. The South Regional Police Commission in Korea has begun an investigation of the case, Korea It Times reports.

"Most fishing fleets must buy licenses through local agents,” Dongwon responded. “As many as 40 fleets including the French one had unknowingly purchased fake licenses."

Meanwhile, Dongwon announced that it is preparing a lawsuit against the local agency for damages caused, including the fines paid to the Liberian government.

The case of the F/V Premier began in 2011 when Stop Illegal Fishing in cooperation with the BNF and Trygg Mat Analytical Unit detected that F/V Premier was fishing illegally in Liberian waters. This was confirmed in December 2012 when an inspection by Mauritian authorities in Port Louis provided log book information. 

Since then, the F/V Premier has been refused port access for offloading of fish in the Seychelles and Mauritius and fishing licenses in other Indian Ocean countries.

The F/V Solevant now registered in the Côte d’Ivoire and operated by Dongwon Industries, was previously named Santa Maria and registered in France. The vessel was tracked fishing illegally in the Liberian EEZ in February, June, July and September 2012 under its current name, and these offenses are the ones associated to the settlement; while called Santa Maria the vessel was found carrying a forged Liberian fishing license.

The action against these vessels demonstrates a pan-African solidarity that Stop Illegal Fishing has been working to grow over the last six years using the FISH-i Africa initiative. Which, although only four months old, has already proved useful through providing information about the forged documents back to Liberia, and through the solidarity of the five Indian Ocean member countries that cooperated to deny access for port facilities and granting of fishing licenses.

Stop Illegal Fishing now consequently plans to expand the network in the Indian Ocean and aims to establish a West Africa FISH-i Africa node.

Related articles:

- Greenpeace pushes govt to refuse port entry to Dongwon vessel
- Dongwon Industries' allegations refuted by Liberia´s govt

By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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