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.

  Majuro, Marshall Islands 18 March 2016: As the Pacific’s dominant fisheries bloc gears for its annual policy meeting in Kiribati later this month, the over-riding theme for the 10-day gathering is “how to enhance control of the fishery,” said the group’s chief executive officer.

   Majuro 8 February 2016: The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) was honored for its “vision” in developing and managing a sustainable fishery in the western and central Pacific, while gaining new global certification for sustainably caught yellowfin tuna in the past week.

   Bali, Indonesia 8 December 2015: The Parties to Nauru Agreement (PNA) says some members and small island nations like Tuvalu stand to suffer from various measures it has had to bargain away to distant water fishing nations in the name of consensus.
   Reacting to statements made by PNA member nation Tuvalu in Bali today, PNA Chief Executive Officer Dr Transform Aqorau said the treatment of the small island nation is a classic example of how big fishing nations mistreat their smaller counterparts in the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC).  

   Bali, Indonesia 8 December 2015: The Parties to Nauru Agreement is deeply disappointed with the failure by members of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission to reach an amicable solution on bigeye tuna that would address its overfished status.

   PNA chairman Eugene Pangelinan said they had presented a balanced package of longline and purse seine proposals for the meeting and they had received wide support. However, they would come away without a meaningful measure on tropical tuna species Bigeye, Skipjack and Yellowfin.

   Bali, Indonesia 6 December 2015: Papua New Guinea said a notable concern for them at the current Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) annual meeting was fishing in the high seas and recommended urgent management intervention.
   PNG Ambassador Commodore Peter Ilau said, as a member of the Commission, PNG wished to reiterate its call for effective and appropriate mechanisms to encourage member compliance with their obligations under the Conservation and Management Measures developed and adopted by the Commission.

   Bali, Indonesia 6 December 2015: Tuvalu has become the latest Parties to Nauru Agreement (PNA) member nation to implement the Vessel Day Scheme for its longline fishing industry, signing on to the scheme at the PNA meeting in Bali.