Saving Seafood

Tuna a hot topic at meeting of Pacific fisheries officials in Australia

July 7, 2017 — Fisheries ministers from countries belonging to the Forum Fisheries Agency are meeting in Australia this week to discuss the future of tuna fisheries under increasing pressure from overfishing.

The 17-member FFA helps to manage fisheries in the Pacific Ocean, with specific emphasis on the marine economic zones of Pacific Island countries. It provides strategic fisheries management advice on the management of fish stocks, monitoring, and surveillance of fishing activities and trade and market access for its members.

Australia’s assistant minister for agriculture and water resources, Anne Ruston, opened the 14th Forum Fisheries Committee Ministerial Meeting in Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia by pledging in-depth conversations on the sustainable management of fisheries in the Pacific, particularly tuna fisheries.

“In 2015, the global tuna catch was valued at around USD 4.8 billion (EUR 4.2 billion) and almost half of this was caught in the waters of Forum Fisheries Agency member nations, including Australia,” Ruston said. “These tuna fisheries are an important economic resource for Pacific Island nations and it is vital for the future of these nations that they are managed sustainably.

Ruston said hoped the meeting could help create an outline for the FFA’s agenda for the next year, including priorities for the 14th Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, according to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Pacific bluefin tuna group puts off new moves to save fish

September 3, 2015 — An international body that monitors fisheries in most of the Pacific Ocean ended a meeting in Japan on Thursday without agreement on fresh measures to protect the dwindling bluefin tuna.

The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission was unable to get a consensus on either short-term or long-term measures to help restore the bluefin population, whose numbers are estimated to have fallen 96 percent from unfished levels.

Last year, the 10-nation commission recommended that the catch of juvenile tuna be cut to half of its average level in 2002-2004. But conservation groups say more must be done to counter the sharp decline of the species.

The lack of a required three-quarters quorum prevented any agreement, since representatives from China, the Cook Islands, Vanuatu and the Philippines did not attend. So any decisions on new long-term measures were pushed back to 2016, the Japanese Fisheries Agency said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Bedford Standard-Times