GIFF JOHNSON The fishing treaty between the United States and the Pacific islands has collapsed. For the first time in nearly 30 years, the American tuna fleet will not be authorized to fish in the western Pacific starting New Year’s day, this Friday. The US government last week told the nearly 40 American purse seiners […]
YVETTE MONDAY Fisheries observers have been hailed for the work they do as the eyes and eared of Pacific countries. They are the frontline officers collecting catch data vital to understanding how many fish are left and how to ensure sustainability of the stocks. Transform Aqorau, the CEO of the PNA group of countries, says […]
Five days of exhaustive talks at the annual meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) yielded mixed results for Pacific island states. But the Parties to Nauru Agreement (PNA) said it was “deeply disappointed with the failure” of the WCPFC “to reach an amicable solution on bigeye tuna that would address its […]
The PNA plan to implement a Vessel Day Scheme (VDS) for the longliner fishing industry in the western and central Pacific received a boost recently with the agreement of Papua New Guinea and Tokelau to join the five PNA nations that had triggered the plan at the end of last year. This brings six of […]
The visit to Majuro this week by a New Zealand team reviewing commercial tuna management schemes highlights a growing debate between the eight PNA members and distant water fishing nations. The conflict centers on whether “catch limits” are better than “effort limits,” which is what PNA uses to manage the skipjack tuna fishery. Effort limits […]
