Transcript
Prior to a public meeting on the agreement, traditional leader William Framhein said they planned to give this advice to the EU representatives who were expected to attend.
"The European Union be told to stay in their ocean and to keep out of our moana, to leave our resources alone, our kaimoana for the people of our country."
But Mr Framhein says they were later told by Deputy Prime Minister Mark Brown that he would not expose the EU officials to the traditional leaders.
"We're gutted, disappointed and we've made it known to the Minister that basically the Government has snubbed us as traditional leaders and has no respect for our custom."
Mr Framhein says instead they were only able to deliver their message to the Secretary of Marine Resources Ben Ponia.
Mr Ponia says some the agreement's opponents have already made up their minds and won't be swayed by facts.
"We're being detracted by misinformation, to a certain degree by emotion, that's not allowing logic to prevail."
The Marine Resources secretary is adamant the deal with the EU is a sound agreement for the Cook Islands.
"We have an obligation, we have a very important fishery to manage. It is an economic resource that serves the country's needs, that pays for the salaries of teachers, contributes to social welfare. So we have to be very mindful of what's at stake here."
Ben Ponia says under the agreement financial support will also be given to help develop the local fishing industry.
A senior EU official who attended the meeting, also believes the agreement has been misunderstood.
"We were under the impression that there was a sort of interpretation that our fleet could come here and fish indefinitely whatever kind of quantities we could have been finding in these waters but this is not the case."
Instead he says the seven thousand tonne a year catch limit the agreement sets is based on scientific estimates made by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission and the Cook Islands of what can sustainably be extracted.
"It's really I would say a kind of insignificant amount. You have to take into account that in Western and Central Fisheries part of the world the total catches in 2015 of tuna fish has been 2,687,000 and we are talking about 7,000."
But traditional leader William Framhein questions the accuracy of his government's data on the health of the fisheries.
"Our local fishermen are the real source of data, the real data. They are the ones telling us that there is no fish, the fish are getting smaller, fishermen are having to travel further afield to catch large fish. The real issue is there's a decline in tuna in the Cook Islands."
The EU spokesperson is also countering concerns that purse seiners rely on fish aggregating devices that attract other species into their nets.
"Our fleet is really up to speed with the most modern approach in avoiding this non-targetted bycatches and in particular they are all using what we call non-entangling FADs, these fish aggregated devices which actually avoids the entangling of non-targetted species."
But traditional leader Keu Mataroa says there is great opposition from all sectors of society to the decision to allow the EU purse seiners in.
"I do hope that the government would think and reconsider their position and acknowledge that the people of the nation are up in arms with this particular agreement."
But Marine Resources Secretary Ben Ponia says they intend to pursue the agreement despite legal action seeking a judicial review. He says he expects the first payments from the EU before the end of December.
