shark fisher remanded in custody

[groverwa]

Commercial shark fisher remanded in custody

Date: Friday, 26 June 2009

A 35-year-old man has been remanded in custody, following a court appearance in Perth related to alleged commercial shark fishing offences.

Fisheries and Marine Officers arrested Fu-Hsin CHEN at Perth Airport in the early hours of this morning (Friday), as he was preparing to board an international flight to Taiwan.

Mr Chen is believed to have been living in Taiwan for the past six months and arrived in Perth on Sunday.

Fisheries and Marine Officers took this window of opportunity to formally charge him, in relation to the alleged seizure of approximately 10 tonnes of shark products from a commercial fishing vessel at Broome Wharf almost a year ago.

Mr Chen is the Owner/Manager of Shine Year Fisheries (Aust) Pty Ltd.

The company’s vessel “Fortune” was authorised to fish in the Shark Fishery off the Northern coast of WA.

Both Chen and his company are facing charges under Regulation 16B of the Fish Resources Management Regulations (1995).

Regulation 16B requires that commercial fishing boats only carry or unload whole shark. Sharks may however have the fins and trunks separated, although only the head and parts removed during gutting may be disposed of.

Northern Region Manager Peter Godfrey said Regulation 16B was in place to prevent the unsustainable practice of “finning”, where the high value fins are retained and the low value trunks are disposed of at sea.

“The demand for shark fins from markets in Asia has resulted in worldwide concern over the future sustainability of shark stocks,” Mr Godfrey said.

Mr Chen and Shine Year Fisheries are facing two charges each that carry maximum fines of $10,000 each.

If convicted Chen and Shine Year Fisheries would also face total mandatory penalties, ranging between $1million and $14million, for the quantity of fish that is involved in the case.

[GBC]

Friggin gov't official who let them have a license should go down too. Sorry if I sound racist but I've seen it too many times before. 10t of fins - average yield about 5kg per animal - thats 2000 shark barrels wasted. They stuffed their own fishery and they shouldn't be allowed anywhere near ours.

[deepfried]

Yeh i have to agree GBC. I dont think its racist at all just stating the truth. They just dont give a S--T about anything they can make a dollar out of wether its shark fins, sea slugs, elephants, tigers etc etc etc the list just goes on and on. I would think that the majority of threatened or endangered species that arent due to urbanisation would be because of asian demand for food or medicine. It just stinks what they are doing but how do you stop it when there is so much demand. Hope they send him bankrupt. Sad thing is that those trunks would feed a lot of people over there that cant afford shark fin soup and arent part of the problem and they would be gratefull for it. At least then it wouldnt be such a waste.

[Ausfish]

According to an E-mail received today, from a person claiming to be from WA Fisheries, the charges have been withdrawn.

The person also asked if the thread could be withdrawn "The Department would appreciate it if you could please remove this article from your website." but I see no reason to remove it. It would appear to be in the publics interest

[Jarrah Jack]

Good on ya Steve...It was buried until you bumped it up. I know a bit about Vic fisheries and there is no way they would ask for something like that. Although thats only my opinion.

[Dicko]

lol, You're right in leaving it.

It was a news article at the time, and therefore public knowledge.

You can't rewind history.

And yes, I also bet it wasn't from WA fisheries.

[Lovey80]

Thanks for leaving it up Steve, although I can understand why WA fisheries would want it removed.

There may be defamation or similar charges being aimed at them if the charges are being withdrawn. If successful it may deter WA and other state fisheries from pushing hard against things like this in the future.....Sometimes freedom of information can be a double edged sword.

[mangomick]

Charges Withdrawn.......Geez I'd love to know the full story behind that decision.