Kiritimati Island, Kiribati 31 July 2016:  The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) are successful in commercial development and conservation management of the western and central Pacific tuna fishery precisely because its members — not donor agencies and nations — are making the decisions as “rights holders” in the fishery, outgoing PNA CEO Dr. Transform Aqorau told PNA leaders at their annual Ministerial Meeting in Kiritimati Island, Kiribati earlier this week.

   Kiritimati Island, Kiribati 29 July 2016: Ministers and officials from eight Pacific islands met on Kiritimati Island, Kiribati from 22 to 26 July at the annual PNA Ministers Meeting to address conservation and business management issues for the multi-billion dollar western and central Pacific tuna fishery.

   Kiritimati Island, Kiribati 26 July 2016: PNA Ministers gathered in Kiritimati, Kiribati this week for their 11th annual meeting. Opening the meeting, Kiribati Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources Development Tetabo Nakara addressed the importance of building on the gains for the PNA and maximizing opportunities for the future through innovative approaches to management, conservation and development. This can be accomplished, he said, by strengthening the rights of the Parties to their shared resources, which was the theme of the meeting.

  Majuro, Marshall Islands 26 July 2016: An Asian Development Bank report on Pacific island economies recognizes the Parties to the Nauru Agreement’s vessel day scheme (VDS) as “an outstanding global example of coastal states taking control of a fishery based on highly migratory stocks” that resulted in a more than tripling of revenue to PNA members from 2010 to 2014.

   Majuro, Marshall Islands 19 July 2016: “In 2009, fisheries ministers asked us to establish the vessel day scheme on a commercial basis,” said Parties to the Nauru Agreement Chief Executive Dr. Transform Aqorau on the eve of the PNA fisheries ministers meeting this week. “Our small office in Majuro achieved what the ministers requested. We did it with our own resources without donor funding.”

  Majuro, Marshall Islands 18 June 2016: A recently signed cooperation agreement between the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) and the International Sustainable Seafood Foundation (ISSF) allows the two entities to cooperate on FAD tracking, the Vessel Day Scheme, purse seine vessel registry and other areas.

   As part of this closer cooperation between ISSF and PNA, ISSF is to allow PNA nations an exemption to bring new fishing vessels into service to develop their domestic fisheries industries.

Majuro, Marshall Islands 12 June 2016: A new U.S. government fishing regulation that went into effect late last month violates a conservation measure for high seas fishing approved last year by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), said the Parties to the Nauru Agreement Chief Executive.

   “This new U.S. fishing rule seeks to allow its purse seine fleet to evade the WCPFC measure,” said Dr. Transform Aqorau, PNA CEO.

   Majuro, Marshall Islands 15 April 2016: The Parties to the Nauru Agreement have named a new Chief Executive Officer who will take over from outgoing CEO Dr. Transform Aqorau.

   Ludwig Kumoru, Deputy Managing Director of Papua New Guinea’s National Fisheries Authority, is expected to take over as PNA CEO from 1 August 2016. He was endorsed for the post by unanimous consent of the eight countries that are PNA members at the annual meeting last week in Kiribati after he was ranked as the top choice for the position by an independent search panel.

   Tarawa, Kiribati 10 April 2016: A Pacific island fisheries bloc has unanimously decided to maintain a management system that has increased revenue to the islands by over 500 percent in the past six years.

   Despite criticism by countries outside of this western and central Pacific fishery of a management system used to regulate the tuna industry, fisheries officials from the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) agreed at their annual meeting in Kiribati last week to recommend to their fisheries ministers that the system be maintained.

   Tarawa, Kiribati 25 March 2016 — A series of annual meetings of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) kicks off Monday in the Kiribati capital of Tarawa with an agenda that will cover everything from review of the PNA’s Vessel Day Scheme and the U.S. fisheries treaty to selecting a new Chief Executive Officer and establishing a fisheries research program to build capacity among member nations.