‘Here today, in Tonga tomorrow’

APIA – Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, this weekdownplayed concerns about his government allowing Foreign Licensed Fishing Vessels to fish in Samoa’s Exclusive Zone saying: “If we can issue a billion licenses so be it.”

He insisted that “the more the licenses issued to foreign companies the better.

“It is not important how many licenses are issued,” said the Prime Minister. “The problem is people do not understand.”

He explained, “Samoa has a very small fishing zone and fish don’t belong to Samoa they are migrating species”.

“There is nothing to worry about having a small fishing)zone,” said Tuilaepa.

“That is because the fish will be here today and in Tonga tomorrow. They are migrating species.

“What we should do is to go out at sea and wait until the fish gets here and then catch it.”

Claims that the more foreign vessels will result in overfishing were also dismissed.

According to Tuilaepa, the current fishing vessels cannot cover the fishing zone of Samoa.

“What they don’t understand is by the time the fishing boat reaches there, fish from Tonga arrive,” he pointed out.

“They are not ours they’re from Tonga and if we don’t catch them they will be in Tokelau or Kiribati tomorrow.”

He added issuing more licenses means more money for our country.

“Why hold on to licenses? Just issue them because we get more money from them.”

The Prime Minister also accused the owner of the Samoa Observer newspaper of not understanding what he writes about.

“He doesn’t understand what he is writing,” said Tuilaepa.

“I think the owner of the Observer has never gone fishing before. He probably stopped at where it is shallow.”

Asked for a comment, the chief editor of Samoa Observer, Savea Sano Malifa said: “No comment.”