Saving Seafood

Kiribati moves to open Phoenix Islands Protected Area to fishing, citing lost revenue

November 19, 2021 — The Kiribati government has announced it will open to fishing the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) – a 408,250-square-kilometer marine protected area – after a decline in revenue the island-nation’s government attributed to the creation of the area.

The Kiribati government said an independent advisory panel found that since the creation of PIPA in 2015, demand for its fishing permits has declined 8 percent, costing the country millions in revenue.

The government said the lost revenue has huge implications on future allocations of Kiribati’s vessel day scheme (VDS) share via its participation in the Parties to the Nauru Agreement. For purse-seine fishing, this decline translated to approximately USD 60 million to USD 140 million (EUR 53 million to EUR 123 million) in lost revenue since 2015. For longline fisheries, Kiribati lost out on approximately USD 850,000 (EUR 749,000) annually, or around USD 5.9 million (EUR 5.2 million) since 2015.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Pacific fisheries to get higher fees in US deal for 2016

August 10, 2015 — A one-year transitional arrangement for United States vessels for 2016, agreed to on 5 August this year is expected to bring greater benefits to all Pacific Islands.

Dr Transform Aqorau, CEO of Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA), said the one-year deal was sealed after a negotiating session in Australia confirming the value of the PNA’s vessel day scheme (VDS) for managing the skipjack tuna fishery in the western and central Pacific ocean.

The islands will receive higher fees for fewer fishing days than in the current agreement for 2015.

He said a positive development reflecting the value of rights based fisheries management for the Pacific Islands, the deal for one-year however underscores the increasing difficulties in getting agreement on longer term access for U.S vessels as they enjoyed, until PNA introduced the VDS.

PNA had set US$8,000 as the minimum fee for VDS days for 2015 and 2016 while capping the number of fishing days for 2015 and 2016 at fewer than 45,000. Many fishing nations in 2015 are paying significantly more than this benchmark price to secure fishing days for their fleets.

The eight PNA members including the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau,  Papua new Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu will receive US$12,600 per finishing day, a 34 percent increase over the US$9,380 currently paid by the U.S purse seine fleet.

Read the full story from Matangi Tonga Online