NZ navy barred from boarding boats in fishing stand- off

The New Zealand navy is engaged in a stand-off with two
boats thought to be illegally fishing toothfish in the Southern
Ocean.

Naval patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington had been monitoring
the vessels which are sailing under the flag of Equatorial
Guinea, the foreign minister said.
Overnight authorities in Guinea gave New Zealand permission
to board them.
But crew members barred authorities from boarding the
vessels.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully said HMNZS Wellington tried
to board the ships which was its "legitimate right", but the
vessels refused to co-operate.
"Due to the conditions and the evasive tactics of the masters,
it was not possible to safely board these vessels."

While the ships are flying flags from Equatorial Guinea, Mr
McCully said there was reason to believe they might be linked
to a Spanish syndicate.

New Zealand was now working with Interpol to prevent the
boats being offloaded at nearby ports and to investigate the
links with the Spanish syndicate, the New Zealand Herald
reported.

Mr McCully said New Zealand had strong evidence the vessels
were illegally fishing toothfish, also known as Chilean sea
bass.

"What we have already achieved is significant photographic
evidence of what these guys have been up to down there," he
said. "This is cynical international criminal activity and we
need to stamp it out."

The Southern Ocean fishery is tightly regulated and cannot be
fished by countries that do not belong to a multi-national
conservation body.