Expect the Pacific’s work on managing its lucrative tuna resource to get better and smarter as the region comes under increasing pressure from foreign multinationals with the backing of their equally powerful governments.
Strong decisions and new initiatives were announced over the past months by the two leading fisheries organisations in the Pacific; the Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) based in Honiara, Solomon Islands, and the very influential Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) which is headquartered in Majuro in the Marshall Islands.
All eight members of the PNA – Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu – are also members of the FFA, but are considered very influential as most of the Pacific’s tuna stocks are found in their waters.
Frustrated by the inability of the United Nations’ body, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, to control fishing in the high seas, which are bodies of international waters found in between their national waters, the PNA decided in their June meeting in Micronesia to enforce its own controls on fishing boats that want to fish for tuna in their waters and buy fishing days in their trail blazing Vessel Day Scheme.
Total allowed effort of fishing days for 2016 will be reduced by over 700 days to 45,881, and a fee of US$1000 per VDS day will be imposed for the use of FADs (Fish Aggregate Devices). In addition, longliners will be for the first time brought into the VDS in an attempt to assert some control in what officials say has been an out of control industry.
A month after PNA members met in Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia, representatives of the 17 member countries of the FFA flew on chartered aircraft to Funafuti for the Pacific Fisheries Ministers’ annual meeting.
Ministers announced two new initiatives at the end of their 11th ministerial in Tuvalu: a regional Roadmap for Sustainable Pacific Fishery, and a Tuna Fishery Report Card.
The second initiative basically reports on the progress of the Roadmap and will be compiled on an annual basis for presentation to Pacific leaders who are members of the Pacific Islands Forum.
Reporting to their leaders and securing their support is part of working smarter to counter increasing pressure from foreign nations that are keen to fish in our waters. Fisheries officials recognise that their work will be way much better and more effective if they have the backing of their political masters. “Delivering on this Roadmap towards a better future for our fisheries requires commitment at the highest political level – and a willingness to drive change in national laws and institutions, including through greater investment to reflect the value of our fisheries resources,” the FFA said in their regional Roadmap for Sustainable Pacific Fishery.
It identifies seven goals of Pacific fisheries, in the areas of sustainability, value, employment, food security, and the additional three goals of empowerment, resilience and livelihoods in coastal fisheries. To achieve these goals, the Roadmap offers eleven strategies, which are effective-zone based management, continue to reduce IUU fishing, progressively restrict fishing on the high seas by foreign fleets, prioritise the supply of raw materials to processors in the region, establish high standards for employment in the fishing and processing industry, establish regional processing hubs in partnership between countries, and for coastal fisheries, provide relevant information to inform management and policy, re-focus fisheries agencies to support coastal fisheries management, ensure effective collaboration and coordination of stakeholders, and develop, enforce strong and up-to-date legislation, policy and plans and ensure equitable access to benefits and involvement in decision making.
Each year, as Leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum meet for their annual get together, the FFA will provide them with that year’s Tuna Fishery Report Card, detailing in just one page or two, the progress of work on the Roadmap. This year’s Report Card for example is only 2 pages long. “The Roadmaps provides a 3-year timeframe for the agreement of Target Reference Points and a 10-year timeframe for the implementation of management measures to achieve them in order to support economically viable fisheries,” the Report Card states under Goal 1 – Sustainability.
It goes onto report that the bigeye tuna species is overfished, and while management measures have been introduced by the PNA and enhanced by the WCPFC, further reductions are necessary especially from both purse seine and longline fisheries. The 2015 Report Card went onto say that overfishing is not occurring in the other three tuna species found in Pacific waters, namely South Pacific Albacore, Skipjack and Yellowfin.
Responding to additional questions from Islands Business, the FFA says the purpose of their Report Card compiled jointly with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community is two-fold.
“The first is to provide simple, yet balanced and contextualised reporting of key fisheries issues (sustainability, development metrics and management challenges) to all stakeholders. The second, and perhaps more important is as a monitoring tool for the success of the Roadmap.
“The intention is to update the Report Card annually so that it can track the region’s progress against the indicators that are set out in the Roadmap. This will allow Leaders to provide adequate oversight to the implementation of the specific strategies as well as identifying areas where progress is inadequate.”
Part of working smarter is getting their own house in order, which would require coming up with new strategies aimed at handling foreign fleets and distant water fishing nations in the WCPFC. Limiting the number of agenda items in the WCPFC and not leaving negotiations to the two weeks of the WCPFC’s annual sessions are two strategies FFA Ministers adopted in their July meeting in Tuvalu.
“One area of focus in the strategy is trying to regulate the workload of the Commission, so that it can focus on a small number of priority issues rather than having an agenda so full it can’t resolve anything. FFA members’ specific priorities for 2015 include tightening up the tropical tuna and south Pacific albacore measures, setting Target Reference Points and implementing the Harvest Strategy development process, and improving the effectiveness of the Compliance Monitoring Scheme.
“Another element is seeking avenues to engage in dialogue with key commission members on specific issues ahead of formal meetings to try to identify mutually acceptable approaches, rather than through combative exchanges across the floor.”
About continuing negotiations with the United States over the extension of their multilateral fishing treaty with the Pacific Island Countries, the FFA says the islands have resolved some outstanding issues to progress discussions on this front.
“Ministers noted the progress that officials have made in recent negotiation session including, significantly, finally resolving outstanding issues about the way that national laws are applied to US vessels, which has been a key point of contention for many years. However, Ministers also noted that there remain several challenges to the negotiation, not the least of which is the ongoing efforts of officials to ensure that the US industry pays the full commercial rate for the access it uses, allowing more of the Government Economic Assistance payment to be used for development purposes. Ministers encouraged officials to continue the progress made to date in order to achieve outcomes that are acceptable to all members.”