Pacific Island countries value the importance of maintaining dialogue, this can be seen in the numerous regional fisheries conferences, especially the tuna management-related meetings that are held annually in the region.
The Managing Director for The National Fisheries Authority (NFA) managing director, Justin Ilakini says these meetings/dialogues have assisted countries in the region to come together and develop common positions and strategies to ensure the sustainable management of tuna in the region.
In hosting the 8th Pacific Tuna Forum (PTF) 2023, NFA has collaborated with INFOFISH, to bring together Pacific Island Leaders, including six fisheries ministers from Niue, Nauru, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Palau, and Kiribati.
Discussions over the two-day forum will include tuna stocks, tuna sustainability challenges, Vessel Day Scheme, implications of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and climate change scenarios for the tuna industry, among many other areas of discussions.
Ilakini says, “We hope the presentations and discussions that will be held over the two days will contribute to putting sustainable tuna development and investment issues front and centre for governments, industry and associated stakeholders throughout the Pacific Island region.”
NFA has emphasized the sharing of quality and useful information in the tuna forum that will contribute towards enabling the region to evolve from only focusing on sustainable tuna management, to embracing opportunities in investments.
Ilakini added that these can be done to achieve a greater retention of the market value of the billion-dollar tuna fisheries sector to remain within the Pacific Island region.