14 May 2009

Parties to Nauru Agreement come down hard on pirate fishing

10:26 am on 14 May 2009

A move by the Parties to the Nauru Agreement or PNA have come down hard on pirate fishing.

The group now support the closure of all high seas areas to clamp down on pirate fishing and the move has been applauded by Greenpeace.

The environmental group told the Fiji Times the member countries of the Forum Fisheries Agency or FFA, should now use this precedent to increase their bargaining power to achieve closure of all the high seas pockets.

It said the remaining two pockets are bound by Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and to the central Pacific high seas bound by Kiribati, Cook Islands and French Polynesia EEZs.

Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner, Josua Turaganivalu, said this could be accomplished through an agreement by these countries similar to the PNA third implementing arrangement, which closed off the first two high seas pockets.

He said PNA countries are showing leadership and sending a signal to the world that the Pacific region was serious about sustainably managing the world's largest remaining tuna stocks.

The PNA includes the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.