The American purse seiner Raffaello off-loads tuna in Port Majuro Photo: RNZI GIff Johnson
The Parties to the Nauru Agreement say a new agreement will allow PNA countries to bring more purse seiners into service.
The agreement with the International Sustainable Seafood Foundation allows the two bodies to cooperate on fish agregating device tracking, the Vessel Day Scheme, the purse seine vessel registry and in other areas.
As part of this PNA nations have an exemption to bring new fishing vessels into service to develop their domestic fisheries.
In 2012, the foundation capped the number of purse seiners at 2015 levels, with the requirement that before any new vessel could begin fishing in the western Pacific, an existing vessel had to be taken off the registry.
The PNA says this effectively blocked its members from attempting to develop their domestic fisheries capacity by adding new vessels.
