The Parties to this Arrangement,

RECALLING that, in accordance with international law, each of the Parties has established an exclusive economic or fisheries zone which extends up to two hundred nautical miles from the baseline from which their respective territorial seas are measured and within which they respectively and separately exercise sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing all living marine resources;

HAVING REGARD to the objectives of the South Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency Convention 1979 and the Nauru Agreement Concerning Cooperation in the Management of Fisheries of Common Interest 1982 and in particular the promotion of regional cooperation and coordination of fisheries policies and the need for implementation of these objectives through regional and sub-regional arrangements;

NOTING the decision of the thirteenth annual meeting of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement held at Honiara on 29 April 1994 to effectively manage and control the purse seine fishery in the Central and Western Pacific region by a scheduled reduction in the number of foreign purse seine fishing vessels to be allowed access to fish;

FURTHER NOTING the primary objective of the Palau Arrangement for the Management of the Western Pacific Fishery as Amended – Management Scheme (Purse Seine Vessel Day Scheme) to limit the fishing effort by purse seine vessels in the respective exclusive economic zones to the levels of total allowable effort agreed by the Parties to the Palau Arrangement;

CONSCIOUS of the need for greater participation by their nationals in fisheries for highly migratory fish stocks in the Central and Western Pacific region and the need to develop and promote their own national fisheries industries;

TAKING into account the Bikenibeu Declaration endorsed on 21 October 2009 by Ministers of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement on Securing Greater Value from their Common Fisheries Wealth and their decision to establish the Parties to the Nauru Agreement Office (PNA Office);

FURTHER TAKING into account the Koror Declaration agreed on 25 February 2010 by Leaders of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement to increase the economic value and derive greater benefits from tuna resources;

COMMITTED to cooperating to secure for their nationals and for the region as a whole the maximum sustainable economic benefits from the tuna resources of the Central and Western Pacific region;

DESIRING to establish terms and conditions under which fishing vessels which provide long-term, sustainable and quantifiable economic benefits to the Parties may be granted preferential access to the exclusive economic and fisheries zones of the Parties;

HAVE AGREED as follows: (Download PDF file for the rest of the details)