Forum Fisheries Agency

The community's director general, Dr Colin Tukuitonga, said the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, or PNA, and the Forum Fisheries Agency are increasing returns to their member states.

The PNA controls the world's largest, sustainable tuna purse seine fishery which is valued at US$6 billion annually.

Dr Tukuitonga says it returned $US60 million to the region in 2010 which increased to US$500 million in 2017.

The figures suggest the entire tuna stock is at a healthy level, including Bigeye which has long been been reported as severely overfished.

The agency's Wez Norris said the data is potentially great news for the sustainability of the fishery but countries need to be cautious about acting on it.

Mr Norris said the extremely positive report was the result of a fundamental change to the way tuna stocks in the region are being assessed and he says it was not yet clear what measures they'll need to take.

Nine patrol boats from the 10 member nations of the Forum Fisheries Agency took part in Operation Island Chief, with support from the navies of Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

More than 350 personnel were involved in the operation that covered 14 million square kilometres of ocean.

Four fishing vessels, three flagged to China and one to Chinese Taipei, were found to be infringing fishing regulations.

The infringements in Vanuatu and on the high seas, centred around misreporting of information and unmarked gear.

This comes after no rogue vessels were found during the latest ten-day surveillance operation, Tui Moana, which ended last Friday.

The multi-lateral operation covered 7.3 m square km in Polynesia and involved Tonga, Samoa, the Cook Islands, Niue, Fiji and Tuvalu with support from the United States, France, Australia and New Zealand.

The deputy director general of the agency Wez Norris said four regional surveillance operations were run every year in different parts of the fishery and he said this had made a big impact on illegal fishing.

Two decades ago Australia gifted 20 patrol boats to Pacific countries which continue to be on the front line of regional security, monitoring and surveillance of the Pacific tuna fishery and the first response in times of natural disaster.

The deputy director general of the FFA, Wez Norris, said the Pacific patrol boat roll out would begin next year and would continue until the entire Pacific patrol boat fleet was replaced.

It was part of the Pacific Maritime Security Program which would see $US1.5 billion spent in the region over the next three decades.

At 3 days of meetings this week in Nadi the members of the Forum Fisheries Agency debated what to do about a U.S plea to buy fewer fishing days in their fishing zones.

The U.S's reneging had cost the Pacific more than 68 million US dollars.

The FFA member states this week put the focus on moving forward to try and conclude a deal with the US and mitigate the financial loss.

The FFA's director general James Movick said they have a deal they hope the US will still accept.