The World - News from July 11, 1989

Fifteen South Pacific nations alarmed at the depletion of tuna stocks by drift-net fishing asked help to force Japan and Taiwan to end the practice. The Pacific leaders, meeting in Tarawa, Kiribati, for their two-day annual South Pacific forum, are alarmed that the practice--also called gill-net fishing--threatens the Pacific’s economic future, said Cook Islands Prime Minister Geoffrey Henry. The technique uses nets up to 30 miles long and has been likened to strip mining the ocean.