Majuro PNA Meetings Produce Call For Tuna Fishing Reform Pacific coalition to raise day fishing fees, push better conservation MAJURO, Marshall Islands (Marianas Variety, June 17, 2014) – Island countries want more from tuna caught in their waters and Friday in Majuro they announced to the world that they intend to get it. The eight nations that control waters where over 50 percent of the global supply of skipjack tuna is caught agreed to a 33 percent jump in fishing day fees charged to tuna boats, put the U.S. industry on notice that the $63 million it agreed to pay per year to fish in the region is not enough, and criticized distant water fishing nations for their abuse of regional conservation agreements. Fisheries ministers from the Parties to the Nauru Agreement issued a strongly worded four-page communiqué Friday at the end of two days of meetings in the Marshall Islands. “These were hard decisions to be reached, but ones everyone was happy to sign off on,” said Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority Director Glen Joseph Friday. The PNA agreed that it will raise the fishing day fee from $6,000 to US$8,000 starting January 1, 2015. Revenue from the nearly 50,000 annual fishing days PNA sells could rise from about $280 million this year to over $370 million in 2015. “World market prices dropped late last year,” said Joseph. “But there are indications of improvement that warrants the increase to $8,000 per day.” Difficult negotiations between Pacific islands and the American tuna industry and the U.S. State Department produced agreement from the U.S. last year to increase payments from $21 million to $63 million a year for fishing rights in the Pacific. Both Joseph and PNA CEO Dr. Transform Aqorau said that is no longer enough. “We won’t agree to anything after 2015 unless it reflects the new benchmark price,” said Aqorau Friday. The next negotiating session with the U.S. is in Auckland in July. “Times have changed and the value of the vessel day scheme is going up,” said Joseph. “We need to revisit the (financial) issues.” The PNA wields strong leverage with the U.S. fleet because the 40 U.S.-flagged purse seiners fish almost exclusively in the waters controlled by the eight PNA nations: Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau.
Posted on: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 13:00:23 +0000