Members of the multilateral Tuna Commission have been challenged to focus on conservation and sustainability of fish stocks to ensure longer term financial benefits to all the parties.
Speaking at the opening of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission 13th annual meeting in Nadi Fiji yesterday, WCPFC Executive Director Feleti Teo said he hoped the Commission would find a way forward this week to lay the foundation for recovery plans of the bigeye tuna and Pacific Bluefin tuna.
Mr Teo acknowledged the complexities of a multilateral body like the Tuna Commission which is made up of powerful Distant Water Fishing Nations like China, Japan, European Union and the United States as well as Pacific island countries like Kiribati, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Nauru and Samoa.
“There is an extreme divergence of Member interests, exacerbated by interest groups with entrenched and jealously guarded positions, he said.”
The WCPFC is a regional fisheries management organisation (RFMO) that manages highly migratory fish stocks like Pacific Bluefin, bigeye and skipjack tuna in the Pacific Ocean.
Pacific Bluefin tuna and bigeye tuna have decreased to 2.6 per cent and 16 per cent pre-fishing stocks and are still being overfished.
Mr Teo spoke of the need for a work plan on harvest strategy management adding it is an important way forward.
According to the head of WCPFC, the proposal is for the Commission to agree in advance what management measures (harvest control rules) will automatically come into force when a certain level in the status of a stock is reached.
“For instance, if a stock has gone below its limit reference point (that is, its biologically sustainable level), a suite of pre-agreed management measures would kick in,” he said.
Mr Teo pointed out that currently, negotiations become bogged down as members seek to protect their existing interests, instead of safeguarding the sustainability of the stocks.
The challenge for the member countries of WCPFC at the annual meeting in Nadi this week is to reach a consensus on the different elements of a harvest strategy and the work plan that will guide the work of the Commission on this matter.
Photo: Feleti Teo, Executive Director Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission at the opening of WCPFC13 in Nadi, Fiji