The Secretariat of the Pacific Community under its Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) tagging project which the National Fisheries Authority enforces has resumed normal payouts to fishermen who retrieve tags in Madang Fisheries Office.
The WCPO tagging project will provide:
- Data that will help provide more accurate stock assessments of tuna
- Information on movement and mixing of tuna in the equatorial WCPO and between this region and nearby regions of the Pacific
- Information on how fish aggregating devices affect the movement of tuna
- Information on the depths that different tuna species live and move within in the tropical WCPO and how fish aggregating devices (FADs) affect the movement of different tuna species at different depths
- Information on the local fishing rates and how much tuna are caught in various parts of the WCPO
The fish that are tagged are the Bigeye, Skipjack and yellowfin tuna. Here in Madang, the NFA observers program enables officers to collect data of tag collectors.
According to the Tag Recovery Officer and Biological Sampling Coordinator, Richard Tangudal, many of the trawling and cannery companies are participants along with some local fishermen.
He states that in Madang awareness has been done and carried out to fishermen at the Madang fish market and another at Rempi village.
There is a guide and manual that all catchers must follow in order to retrieve the tags and fill in the information required to return to the Fisheries office in order to receive their reward. From there the Tag Recovery Officer then collects these information and forwards them onto Noumea, head office of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.
This program has been running for more than 20 years now and currently with the increase of reward rate it seems that many fishermen are keen in participating, as currently rewards range from $10 - $250 depending on the type of tag brought in.