Majuro (20 November 2014) — Overfishing of bigeye tuna in the central and western Pacific must be halted by reducing fishing mortality levels, said the CEO of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA).

The eight PNA members and Tokelau, who control waters where over 50 percent of the world’s skipjack tuna is caught, have put a detailed conservation measure on the table for adoption at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) annual meeting in Apia, Samoa 1-5 December.

“The WCPFC must step up by taking effective action to curtail overfishing of bigeye in our fishery,” said PNA CEO Dr. Transform Aqorau. For the past five years this regional fisheries management organization has danced around the issue, failing to adopt effective measures to ensure the sustainability of tuna resources, Dr. Aqorau said.

“Each year, the stock assessments have painted a bleaker picture about the status of bigeye and yellowfin tuna,” he said. “The Tuna Commission cannot continue avoiding the issue. Bigeye is now subject to overfishing and yellowfin stocks are being fished at their maximum capacity. This is not sustainable and must be reversed.”

The WCPFC oversees fishing on the high seas in the western and central Pacific, and is comprised of both island members and distant water fishing nations.

The conservation and management measure calls for addressing recommendations of fisheries scientists who in September delivered the latest stock assessment for the region. They recommended a reduction in bigeye tuna fishing, no increase in catch levels for yellowfin tuna, and setting limits on fishing for skipjack tuna to maintain stocks at current healthy levels.

The proposed conservation plan calls for:

• As a priority, provision of operation catch data, especially for high seas longline fleets.

• A range of measures to increase control over the high seas longline fishery, increase the contribution of the high seas longline fishery to bigeye conservation, and increase the benefits to small island developing states (SIDS) from longline fishing.

• Additional bigeye catch reductions for longliners, increased further for those failing to provide operational data to the Tuna Commission; a ban on transshipment of frozen bigeye at sea for high seas-based longliners; carriage by distant water longliners of independent observers from other Tuna Commission members, with increased observer coverage rates for longline fleets failing to provide operational data; tighter controls on reporting by high seas longliners; and a high seas longline effort closure during the closure period on use of fish aggregation devices (FADs).

• A range of measures to improve the effectiveness of the FAD closure, and reduce juvenile bigeye fishing mortality from purse seining, including banning pre-dawn sets in the FAD closure period; banning setting of FADs by tender vessels, with observers to be carried by tender vessels that set FADs; limiting the number of FADs that can be used per vessel to 100; and limiting high seas purse seine effort to the 2012 level.

Importantly, said Dr. Aqorau, the PNA and Tokelau proposal provides for the possibility of moving to charging for use of FADS or charging for registering and deploying FADs.

In addition, the proposal includes language to stop the abuse of limits on vessel numbers to obstruct purchase or construction of vessels for SIDS — a plan that responds to an issue highlighted by PNA ministers at their eighth meeting.

“Looking ahead, PNA members will likely need to reassess their approach to bigeye conservation and management if our measure is not approved at WCPFC 11 in Samoa in light of the burden of bigeye conservation and management being placed on SIDS through the current conservation and management measure,” said Dr. Aqorau.

As part of a management plan to regulate fishing capacity in the region, the PNA wants to see a transfer of capacity from distant water fishing nations to developing Pacific coastal states.

“The science is clear,” said Dr. Aqorau. “To maintain a sustainable fishery for the long-term, we must reduce fishing mortality in 2015 and beyond.”

He called on distant water fishing nations to support the tuna conservation measure to improve sustainability of the tuna fishery during the annual meeting in Samoa next month.
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The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) are eight Pacific Island countries that control the world’s largest sustainable tuna purse seine fishery supplying 50 percent of the world’s skipjack tuna (a popular tuna for canned products). They are Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu.

PNA has been a champion for marine conservation and management, taking unilateral action to conserve overfished bigeye tuna in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, including closures of high seas pockets, seasonal bans on use of Fish Aggregating Devices (FAD), satellite tracking of boats, in port transshipment, 100 percent observer coverage of purse seiners, closed areas for conservation, mesh size regulations, tuna catch retention requirements, hard limits on fishing effort, prohibitions against targeting whale sharks, shark action plans, and other conservation measures to protect the marine ecosystem.

For more information, contact Dr. Transform Aqorau, CEO, PNA Office, on email: transform@pnatuna.com or by phone, (692) 625-7626.