Page 21 - IB Jan 2018

Fisheries PNG Budget More money for agricultural Economy PNG revenue up 6.7 per cent
for first half of 2017
sector P23

Bullies control tuna

Small countries lose out

By Netani Rika trying to put in place stricter measures had led to the unacceptable risk that
in future.” the bigeye tuna population would drop
AFTER 14 meetings of the Western and So if the Pacific nations made conces- below healthy levels.
Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, sions, what did the Distant Water Fish- “Despite substantive efforts by the
one thing is obvious. ing Nations give in return? Chair of the Commission (Rhea Moss-
The Distant Water Fishing Nations – “That’s a very good question,” Norris Christian), the outcome is disappointing,
China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and answered when posed the question by and once again highlights a lack of ef-
the United States – continue to bully Islands Business. fective communication and negotiation
the owners of tuna stocks in the Pacific. He gave a stock, non-committal re- between Commission members in the
In fact the small Pacific fisheries na- sponse before mentioning some of the lead up to this meeting,” Nickson said.
tions who own up to 60 per cent of the gains made at the talks. “The inability to agree on measures
global tuna were forced yet again into One of them was Japan withdrawing that are in line with scientific advice puts
positions in which they made extreme its hard-line stand on a code of conduct into question the commission’s ability
concessions and put the sustainability for the observers on mainly purse seine to fulfil its mandate and meet the needs
of stocks at stake. fishing boats which harvest the bulk of of the Pacific islands that depend on
Wez Norris, the outgoing deputy Di- the 2,207,317 tonnes of tuna each year. healthy tuna fisheries for economic se-
rector General of the Forum Fisheries In a classic smoke and mirrors move curity and the distant water fishing na-
Agency (FFA) was blunt in his assess- the Japanese delegation – which has tions that operate Pacific Ocean fleets.”
ment of the 14th WCPFC held at Pasay never fronted the media in the three In 2015 98,367 tonnes of Big Eye
City in the Philippines last month. previous WCPFC meetings – briefed were harvested in the Western and Cen-
“Every single Pacific Island country journalists on its demands for a code tral Pacific – the largest amount in the
gave up something both in terms of of conduct. world. The second highest Big Eye catch
opportunities they had for development It cited complaints that observers were was 78,005 tonnes in the Eastern Cen-
(and through measures) which come unruly, drunk, had stolen items and tral Pacific – an area roughly between
at a cost, but also provide potential for were generally untrustworthy as basis Central America and half of the US West
future benefit,” Norris said. for the demand. Coast extending westward to Hawaii.
“The five big distant-water longline After hours of negotiations the de- Two years ago scientific advice showed
fleets secured an approximately 10 per mand was dropped and Japan was that Big Eye was critically close to lev-
cent increase in their catch limits.” thanked for its “conciliatory” gesture. els where it would head towards being
And that is a matter of concern for It appears, however, that Japan set up overfished and heading towards prob-
the Pacific.“Allowing existing fleets to the commission in order to have a chip able destruction.
increase their levels of catch and effort to cash in when it pushed for greater Dr John Hampton of the Pacific Com-
really does make a big impact on how allowances to fish in the Pacific. munity said current estimates suggested
difficult it is to develop your own domes- Amanda Nickson of the Pew Chari- that the level of the Big Eye spawning
tic fleet into the future,” Norris warned table Trusts was more forthright than stock had been depleted to around 32
“They might come back to bite us. The Norris, describing the 14th WCPFC per cent of the level it would have been
FFA members did a lot of work to gain outcomes as disappointing. without fishing.
protection measures for tuna and we’ve Nickson said the decision by govern-
effectively rolled that back. ments not to follow the scientific advice Continued overleaf
“It could prove to be very difficult of Pacific Community (SPC) specialists web link:
www.islandsbusiness.com

Islands Business, January 2018 21