Sealord Condemns Dumping Of Fish
9 June 2008
For immediate
release
Sealord Condemns Dumping Of Fish
Sealord
strongly condemns the actions of the men convicted of
dumping Southern Blue Whiting from the FV Aorere, says Chief
Executive Graham Stuart.
"Sealord does not condone
dumping because it undermines the Quota Management System
(QMS). We fully support the QMS and we spend considerable
time and effort instructing and training our crews to comply
with fisheries law."
"Sealord did not know of the
dumping at the time it occurred - that has been acknowledged
in Judge Walker's decision in Mr Harding's hearing where the
Court said: 'It is the informants case that Sealord Charters
Limited knew nothing of the dumping and took no action which
was part of the dumping.'
"We therefore opposed
forfeiture of the vessel, on the sentencing of the three
crew who have been convicted, because we considered that
forfeiture unfairly impacted on Sealord which was not a
party to dumping."
Mr Stuart said Sealord no longer
chartered the Aorere and had fully co-operated with the
Ministry of Fisheries during their
investigation.
ends