Authorities in the Cook Islands are interviewing the crew of a Pago Pago, American Samoa registered fishing vessel that was caught over the weekend allegedly fishing illegally in its waters.
A regional news release last week stated that a New Zealand Air Force Orion that was on a patrol over the Cook Islands came across the 49-foot longliner tuna fishing boat, the Adelita, just north of the island of Suwarrow.
Information about the ship was relayed to New Zealand and Cook Islands authorities, which found the boat did not have a license to fish in the Cook Island Economic Exclusion Zone. Using photographs and coordinates from the New Zealand plane, said the statement, the Cook Islands patrol boat Te Kukupa began searching for the Adelita.
A chase resulted and the boat was finally tracked down almost 24 hours later, and Cook Islands officials boarded the boat and escorted it to Rarotonga. The captain and seven crewmembers of the Adelita are still being questioned.
Jeff Scott, a New Zealand navy technical adviser in Rarotonga, was quoted by Radio New Zealand International saying that Cooks' police are conducting investigations. “At the moment, they're just gathering further evidence and interviewing the crew," Scott said. "They need to get statements from the P3 (patrol boat) crew from the Orion and they hope to gather that in the next day or two, and sit down with the owner, and discuss whether there's going to be an out of court settlement or whether to proceed from there, basically.â€
Under Cook Island laws, those found guilty of illegal fishing in its economic zone could be fined up to US$350,000.
It was not immediately known who the owners of the boat are in Pago Pago.