Tag Archives: Vailele Taukitoku
Maritime NZ has a ‘moral obligation’ to act over old boats going to Pacific, industry says
Maritime NZ is failing in its “moral obligation” to ensure old fishing boats leaving our ports are safe, industry groups say. Stuff revealed last week, click here (Where Boats Go To Die) how Tongans have been buying up old fishing trawlers with Government loans, re-flagging them, and sailing them home with no inspections by New Zealand authorities. Some have broken down and one was later abandoned at sea after a dramatic rescue, leaving the uninsured owner with no way of paying back his loan.,, “It’s our reputation that’s on the line…never mind all the other ethical issues that go alongside it. Read the story here 10:23
Where Boats Go To Die
He wakes in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, his mind going back to the day he lost everything. He grabs his daughter’s tablet and watches the video for the hundredth time. Shot from the deck of the German cruise liner Albatros, it shows his stricken trawler, the Losemani Fo’ou, being rescued by one of the ship’s life boats.A Tongan crewman ends up in the sea; another’s head is split open. Vailele Taukitoku had bought the trawler for $83,000 from New Zealand four months earlier – he never saw it again. He and five crew had been fishing for snapper several hundred kilometres south of Tonga when they discovered the alternator belt was loose and both banks of batteries were dead. continue reading the story here. Big Read! 21:42
