Tackling the tough stuff By Samisoni Pareti Apia, Samoa. Its the second last day of the annual tuna fishing negotiations in Samoa today and its still not clear whether delegates will be able to agree on more controls to avoid the overfishing of the Pacifics depleting tuna stock . Delegates of the 33 countries that are members of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission broke up into smaller groups when the meeting resumed at the spacious Upolu Meeting complex in Apia today. On the agenda is the motion by Pacific Island members to push for new measures to reduce the fishing of tuna species like bigeye in the Pacific high seas, waters that are outside the islands 200 mile economic exclusive zones. Citing latest scientific data, Pacific countries which are members of the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) whose membership includes countries that belong to the influential sub-group the Parties of the Nauru Agreement (PNA) say bigeye tuna is increasingly becoming under threat, and more controls should be imposed. PNA countries of the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu own 50 per cent of the worlds remaining tuna stock. The move for newer measures is being resisted by fishing countries that belong to the Distance Water Fishing Nations, or DWFN. They say its too early to introduce newer measures. Coastal countries in the Pacific also want full disclosure of fishing data by the four DWFN of China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Japan this week is showing some signs that it will relent and release the operational data of its fishing fleet in the Pacific, while the remaining three countries are adamant that national laws prevent them from doing so. FFA deputy director general Wez Norris told Pacific journalists at the WCPFC meeting in Apia that this refusal is causing deep frustrations. If we dont have the best and complete available data for management purposes, the question of sustainability is bleak, and the question of our future is not good. We have a problem, and a big one, with major fishing nations not providing catch and effort level data,” Glen Joseph, Fisheries Authority Director for the Marshall Islands Government told the meeting on Wednesday. At the heart of this debate is the longline boats that only fish in the Pacific high seas and they dont share their catch data. Another issue of contention is the use of FADs - fish aggregating devices in the high seas. Island countries are calling for better controls and management of these devices to ensure that by-catches of juvenile tuna and other endangered species like turtles and sharks are controlled. The WCPFC meeting will end tomorrow (December 5). ends/
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 21:07:31 +0000
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