The federal government is under attack for failing its Southern Ocean patrol duties, leaving others to track down pirate fishers in the illegal toothfish trade.
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The New Zealand Defence Force on Tuesday said it had surprised a third unlicensed fishing boat, far south-east of Tasmania, hauling up the high-priced fish known as "white gold".
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ship, Bob Barker, also was still in a pursuit of a notorious fishing vessel, Thunder, in a chase that began off the Australian Antarctic Territory and is now approaching Africa.
But on Tuesday the ship tasked with Southern Ocean patrols for Australia, Ocean Shield, was at anchor off Christmas Island, according to a ship-tracking website.
Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson called on the government to re-order its priorities and fulfil a neglected obligation to patrol the Southern Ocean.
"I think it's an embarrassment," Senator Whish-Wilson said.
"It also appears to be a broken promise, when the government told a Senate committee there would be two 40-day patrols of the Southern Ocean by Ocean Shield."
He said in contrast, the New Zealand government and Sea Shepherd were gathering evidence and pursuing the poachers.
NZ Foreign Minister Murray McCully said so far three ships had been intercepted by the offshore patrol ship, HMNZS Wellington.
The fishing vessels Yongding, Kunlun and Songhua were operating near each other as the NZ Navy gathered evidence of their fishermen hauling aboard giant toothfish.
"This strongly suggests they are part the same illegal fishing syndicate," Mr McCully said.
"In the past, two of these vessels have been linked to the Spanish-based syndicate, Vidal Amadores S.A."
The boats were fishing the high seas using gillnets, in unlicensed defiance of regulations imposed by the inter-governmental Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.
Sea Shepherd skipper Peter Hammarstedt called on New Zealand to arrest the ships.
"These vessels have been operating for over 10 years," Mr Hammarstedt said. "If they are not arrested they will continue poaching this year and for many years to follow."
The vessel he was following, Thunder, is responsible for hauling up an estimated $60 million worth of toothfish illegally, according to Interpol.
A spokesman for the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Peter Dutton, said the government remained committed to the protection of Australia's sovereign territories and interests in the Southern Ocean.
ACBPS patrols were conducted based on ongoing assessments of operational priorities across all maritime security threats, the spokesman said.
"For operational security purposes, the government cannot disclose details about operational activity or the locations of its asset," he said.
