The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) advanced their record of innovative conservation and management measures last week by advancing a proposal to protect whale sharks.

Up to 12 metres long, whale sharks are the largest living fish species in the world admired for their distinctive spotted markings and gentleness towards divers. Being a long-lived species (70 years), and subject to fishing, their status has been classified by the IUCN as vulnerable.

The PNA brings together eight Pacific Island countries to sustainably manage tuna. PNA members are Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. These countries own waters which supply 25% of the world's tuna, an estimated $2 billion worth of fish every year.

On Friday last week, the PNA secured support of all the 17 members of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency for their proposed conservation and management measure on whale sharks. The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee meeting agreed to support the PNA whale sharks proposal at this year's annual session of the Western and
Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), a body that sets legally-binding rules for fishing across the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.

The PNA-proposed whale sharks measure bans purse seine fishing vessels in the region from setting nets around whale sharks (both alive and dead as some often bask motionlessly at the surface of the water). The measure also says if any whale sharks are caught in nets, fishing vessel owners must stop the net-haul and free the whale sharks.

The measure will be monitored through the observation of independent fisheries observers aboard PNA vessels and, if the measure is adopted at WCPFC, through reporting to this Commission.

The WCPFC will meet next month from 6-10 December 2010 and consider the PNA whale sharks proposal. To adopt the proposal as a WCPFC measure, all countries must agree including the Pacific Islands and the distant water fishing nations that come and fish in the region.

More news about the proposal will be issued during these dates.