13 Dec 2010

Cooks successful in regional fishing talks

4:39 pm on 13 December 2010

The Cook Islands delegation to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission has achieved success in gaining greater control over a pocket of international water near its Exclusive Economic Zone.

The meeting in Hawaii of Pacific nations, fishing companies outside the region and processing companies agreed to introduce special management measures.

The Forum Fisheries Agency spokesperson, Anouk Ride, says this area has been of particular concern:

"Their Eastern high seas pocket, which has been a real concern for them in terms of illegal fishing and illegal fishers kind of hiding in those areas and that was a success story that came out of this year's commission and those special management measures have been adopted."

The Forum Fishery Agency's Anouk Ride says other measures to help reduce overfishing on Bigeye tuna will continue to be discussed.