Taro police in Choiseul province have arrested and charged a man over allegations of multiple sexual activities with an underage girl.

Police media statement yesterday said the complainant is a relative of the suspect.

Choiseul Provincial Police Commander (PPC) Superintendent Berry Pogesopa said these incidents occurred on different dates and locations between January 2023 and January 2025.

Pogesopa said initial report shows the first incident took place when the complainant was 14 years old.

Police allege the last incident occurred on January 21, 2025.

That day members of the community conducted a search for the girl and found her with the suspect, police media statement said.

A report was filed at the Taro police station and the suspect was arrested.

The suspect was charged with the offence of Persistence Sexual Abuse of a Child Contrary to Section 142 of the Sexual Offence Amendment Act 2016.

Pogesopa said the suspect is remanded at Gizo Correctional Services awaiting court on a later date.

He said investigations into this matter is ongoing therefore appealed to any person with relevant information to come forward and assist police with their investigation.

Police arrest 23-yo male under warrant for domestic violence

Auki police in Malaita province have arrested a 23-year-old male who was under warrant for domestic violence in Honiara last year.

Police media statement yesterday said Auki police acted following a report from the office of the Public Prosecution in Honiara of the man’s status.

The suspect failed to attend court after he was charged with domestic violence and went home, the police statement said.

The warrant was issued on the man for evading and failing to attend Magistrate Court.

The suspect was arrested on February 27at his home village in West Are’are and will be escorted to Honiara, where he will appear before the Honiara Magistrate Court, the statement said.

Malaita Provincial Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Tex Tafoa said, “Failing to attend court does not mean that the courts will sweep their cases under the carpet.”

He also thanked community leaders and individuals for their ongoing support to the police in upholding the laws.

By Loretta B Manele

Filling in gaps in unassessed stocks through science is one way of supporting fisheries sustainability.

Dr Eva Plaganyi, Senior principal research scientist and research group leader based at CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) Environment, Australia spoke about this at the Honiara Summit last month.

Speaking as a panellist on Session 4: Supporting fisheries sustainability through science, she expressed that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in filling some gaps around the numbers of unassessed stocks.

Plaganyi touched on the urgent need to address climate change through science.

In the case of applying science in fisheries sustainability, she outlined management strategy evaluation, forecasting techniques and modelling as scientific methods to test how resilient harvest strategies are.

Plaganyi said approaches like management strategy evaluation can be used to build the robustness of management methods that they are trying to use to help manage stocks sustainably.

On top of that, she stated that we can use some forecasting techniques and mentioned that there are a number of scientific advances in seasonal forecasting.

“That’s an example where we’re able to, again, use our scientific knowledge, share those outputs and enable better forward planning to respond to climate change.”

She went on to talk about modelling and stressed that to have adaptable and responsible frameworks there is the need for new modelling and data collection systems.

Plaganyi highlighted that modelling is a really powerful tool because it helps to test different strategies for how are we going to respond to future extreme events or climate events without actually having to first experience those events.

“We can try to figure out beforehand which strategies are winners and which ones are not likely to help us down the line.”

Plaganyi said that from the work being carried out by scientists around the world, there are a number of tools and methods that are now increasingly becoming available, like climate adaptation handbooks and seasonal forecasting tools.

She stressed that these are important not only in planning when is the best time to fish, but also to look after the fishes and communities themselves.

“In northern Australia, for example, we try to provide a heads up of when it might be too hot to go fishing, both because it’s harmful to the fishes as well as to handle the actual products and it would lose value if they fished at the wrong times.”

She furthered that these are the sort of gaps which she thinks science is being done at the moment on a case study basis, however, they are starting to pull that together and will be able to support the community.

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BY JOHN HOUANIHAU

Stakeholders participating in the weeklong Oil Spill Response Training Workshop engaged in an oil spill response exercise yesterday at Aola Police maritime base in Honiara.

The oil spill response training workshop was made possible under the Ocean Country Partnership programme through Ambipar Response and SPREP.

The exercise aims to enhance the participating stakeholders’ response to oil spills with the resources available.

The workshop, set to end today, includes participants from the Solomon Islands Maritime Authority, South Pacific Oil, National Fisheries Development, Ministry of Health & Medical Services, RSIPF Maritime, and other organisations dealing with emergency responses.

“Part of the activity is to look at what equipment was available and how if there was a spill associated with, say the patrol vessel, how you might use that equipment like the boom to be able to ensure that the oil stays where it is and can be cleaned up,’’ said Paul Irving.

He said that the exercise is useful for people to understand that it’s not straightforward.

“It’s quite difficult to put the boom out; it takes some time, you need to figure out how it’s going to work properly, and you need to be aware of the other things going on,’’ he said.

He said that people who are involved in oil spill response need to learn through practice to experience them.

“After that, we went to South Pacific Oil, and South Pacific Oil very generously put their equipment out for us to see,’’ he said.

At the SPO at the Point Crus Jetty, participants were introduced to different types of booms and other equipment that can be used for oil spill response.

“There were three types of booms. There was a land sea boom, a harbour boom, a zoom boom, and brush skimmer and other equipment. So yeah, very interesting to be able to see the equipment that South Pacific Oil has available,’’ said Irving.

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