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Climate change threat to ‘tuna dependent’ Pacific Islands economies

July 30, 2021 — Climate change-driven redistribution of key commercial tuna species will deliver an economic blow to the small island states of the Western and Central Pacific and threaten the sustainability of the world’s largest tuna fishery, a major international study has found.

The study combines climate science, ecological modeling and economic data to provide a comprehensive analysis of the impact of climate change on Pacific tuna stocks and on the small island states that depend on them. It is published today in Nature Sustainability.

A consortium of institutions and organizations from across the Pacific, North America and Europe contributed to the research, including the University of Wollongong, Conservation International, the Pacific Community (SPC), the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), and the Parties to the Nauru Agreement Office (PNAO).

The 10 island states of the Western and Central Pacific—Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tokelau and Tuvalu—are so reliant on their tuna fisheries for economic development and food security that they are considered “tuna dependent.”

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Pacific nations call on WCPFC for climate change action plan

December 9, 2019 — Pacific fisheries officials are calling on members of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) to band together and commit to an action plan that takes climate change’s impacts on its fisheries into account.

In a statement ahead of the week-long tuna commission meeting – taking place in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, between 5 and 11 December – the 17-member Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) are “therefore calling on the WCPFC to collectively take stronger action on climate change.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Licensed Tuna Vessels Blamed for Exploitation: FFA

September 18, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — More than 95 per cent of the Pacific’s challenge from the unsustainable exploitation of its fisheries resources come from licensed, not illegal fishing vessels, the region’s top fisheries official has warned.

The head of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA),Dr Manumatavai Tupou-Roosen, cited research from the organisation showing that licensed vessels present 95 per cent of the problems associated with Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IIU) fishing.

“Our challenge is not purely illegal [or] unlicensed vessels; our big challenge, over 95 per cent [of it] is licensed vessels which are not reporting, under reporting [or] misreporting,” said Dr Manu, who is the first female head of the FFA.

“So when we look at our monitoring control surveillance tools, we need to ensure that we put in place equipment that will ensure we get the right data in a timely fashion.

“For example electronic monitoring, electronic reporting is very much front and centre of our developments.”

In the same study from a few years ago by FFA discovered that although the cost of IUU fishing to the region is not in the billions anymore, the estimated figure of US$616 million is still very significant.

“The number that has been estimated of fish that has been harvested or transshipped waters in our region is in the order of US$616 million and so it is still a significant number and still a significant challenge that none of our countries can tackle alone,” she said.

This loss amounts to more than 12 per cent of the US$5 billion in dock value the Pacific generated in 2014.

“Which is why the way FFA has been set up is based on our cooperation we have put together and integrated monitoring control and surveillance framework to combat IUU fishing,” she said.

The FFA. are looking at baseline indicators to determine fishing levels in all countries including Samoa as part of a challenge to eliminate IUU fishing by 2023.

“It’s really important that we set baseline information so that we can tell by 2023 that we [have] worked down that figure and so as part of that exercise, we’ll look at how we do it across the board for the region plus the possibility of doing it for individual countries,” she said.

The challenge has also been marked as a key priority by the region after being taken to the Pacific Islands Forums and demanded cooperation between the FFA and the Pacific Community (SPC).

“In the context of climate change there is an intensified pressure on coastal resources and so there will be an increasing call on tuna the off shore resources to supplement local food security needs,” she said.

“So there is a responsibility on FFA, the SPC and all of our regional organisations to see how we best support our people, our members and their priorities including in this context of this serious threat of climate change.”

Although tools have been put in place to combat the issues, the Agency says it is still not satisfied as the perpetrators are constantly improving in their methods as well.

“We’re not complacent; the tools put in place are quite advanced but always the technology for fishers are quite smart and advancing how they will extract more fish and we need to stay in tune, in step with these sophisticated technologies and calibrate our [monitoring],” said Dr Manu.

Asked about China’s role, the FFA Chief said it does not matter who member states issue licenses to.

“For any vessel that we license, whether it is China or another partner, what we have to be clear on and our members are very good at underlining [is] what our minimum conditions of access are,” she said.

“And that it applies to all across our members so that our countries are not played off against each other and our members are leading in terms of monitoring control and surveillance tools.”

Dr Manu also highlighted that the Association’s work is not just about ensuring that members are maximising economic returns but regulating the labour market too.

“It’s also the human side to our works and the social responsibility and making sure that when we do license vessels to fish in our waters, whether they are foreign or domestic that they also ensure that crew on board [and] the conditions for their work are safe and decent,” she said.

“And it’s not just the source of employment, it comes hand in hand with ensuring a decent and worthwhile occupation for our people and so it’s the social responsibility together with the economic sustainability and the biological sustainability of our tuna fisheries resources.”

Fisheries access fees paid by foreign fishing vessels are significant sources of government revenue in several Pacific Island countries.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Pacific groups seek vessel standards, ramp up IUU fight

December 11, 2018 — Two groups that represent the interests of Pacific island nations would like a United Nations council that regulates fishing in the region to adopt international minimum standards for vessels.

The groups, the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) and the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA), want the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission to adopt the standards resolution at the commission’s meeting next week in Honolulu, the capital city of the US state of Hawaii.

The FAA said in a press release that minimum labor standards would “enhance economic benefits” to vessel crewmembers from small island states.

“We want to promote enhanced employment opportunities for our members, but we must ensure that the vessels operating in our region are safe working platforms for our people, with fair terms and conditions of employment,” said Manu Tupou-Roosen, the FFA’s director general. “This why we have all agreed on this proposed crewing labor standard.”

Members of the PNA and the FAA are targeting a goal of 33,000 jobs in the fishing industry for Pacific Islanders by 2023, up from 23,000 currently. Around half of all current jobs are held by women in the tuna sector but the groups hope to boost islanders’ employment aboard vessels, particularly longliners.

In a separate release, the FFA said its members were cracking down on Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean “like never before”.

“We have implemented a management system for the purse seiners through the vessel day scheme that has greatly reduced opportunities for IUU activity in this fishery,” Ludwig Kumoru, the PNA’s CEO said. “Our requirement of 100 percent fisheries observer coverage on purse seiners and other measures is a big deterrent to illegal fishing.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Workshop addresses Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing Activities in Tonga

October 12th, 2016 — Participants from government line ministries are attending a workshop that is aimed at developing a standard operative procedure to put into practice the Niue Treaty Subsidiary Agreement (NTSA) that Tonga ratified last year.

A statement said the workshop will help participants develop their knowledge on the agreement to enhance cooperation between the Pacific Island countries in addressing illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities.

Training facilitator Mr. Allan Rahari of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency’s (FFA) said developing procedures would help Tonga manage the agreement which would benefit the country at a national and regional level.

“So the work this week is developing a standard operative procedure so that Tonga can operationalize or put into practice the actual agreement they’ve ratified. So by the end of the week we will have a procedure in place that Tonga Fisheries will consider and perhaps take it for further discussions with other line agencies and then go for the approval process,” he said.

“The benefit to Tonga is that it will help them implement the treaty not only at a national level but the bigger benefit will be to the region as it helps to address issues around illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activity in the region.”

Acting CEO for Fisheries Compliance Division Ms. Losilini Loto’ahea said Tonga has benefitted from the ratification of the NTSA.

“We now can access to facilities needed to counter illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in Tonga through ratifying the NTSA with the assistance of our neighbouring countries such as sharing of data and in terms of emergency.”

“Through this system, we can request for assistance from Australia or New Zealand regarding investigation on illegal fishing or further assistance on a matter which is beyond our control. It is also through this system, that we can be able to identify the available resources from each countries which can assist us if requested.”

Read the full story at Loop

Tuna treaty restored

March 22, 2016 — After a heated debate over high fishing fees and an announcement that the U.S. would pull out of the South Pacific Tuna Treaty, negotiations have restored the treaty and U.S. fishing vessels are back at sea.

Due to a bad 2015 season, the 37-boat American tuna fleet said they couldn’t afford the fees for the fishing days they had agreed to buy in August. They sought to lower the number of fishing days for the fleet and reduce their bill, but the Solomon Islands-based Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, the administrators of the treaty were holding the fleet to their initial agreement.

The U.S. Department announced in mid-January that it intends to pull out of the 27-year-old treaty, effective immediately, and U.S. boats were headed back to port along the California coast.

Now the department has announced that they’ve negotiated, lowering the number of collective fishing days from 5,959 to around 3,900 and the fleet’s tuna tab from $90 million to $66 million. The unused days will be resold to other nations, according to the treaty agency, but those deals will not be as profitable as the original deal with the U.S.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

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