The Secretaritat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, or SPREP, says it's happy with progress made on conservation issues at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting in The Philippines last week.
Measures approved by the commission included prohibiting the dumping of plastic from vessels and moves to protect threatened species, including seabirds, turtles and sharks.
SPREP's threatened species adviser, Mike Donoghue, told Tim Glasgow they were substantive gains.
20445954 - a yellowfin tuna fish with a hook in its mouth from fishing
Photo: ftlaudgirl/123RF
Transcript
MIKE DONOGHUE: We had two major objectives and one was to support forum fisheries agency and Pacific Island delegations on a proposed conservation measure on marine pollution and the other was to promote improved mitigation of bycatches of threatened species - namely turtles, seabirds, sharks. All of those were successful for us, we think we made substantive progress.
TIM GLASGOW: Why do you think it's important that the Pacific fishing industry takes responsibility for those issues?
MD: First of all the Pacific fishing industry in terms of catch volume is largely Asian vessels, with some US vessels and fewer European Union vessels. The amount of fishing that is actually done by Pacific vessels with Pacific crews is relatively minor. We don't have a statutory involvement in tuna management, but we do, of course have an involvement in environmental issues. Both waste management and threatened species. Three years ago we analysed 10,000 observer reports based on Marine pollution events. We discovered that even when there is an observer on board, vessels still dump large amounts of stuff that they're not supposed to dump. So we've been agitating on that for the last couple of years. So we're very pleased to see it as a conservation measure. We're very pleased that we now have an opportunity to hold vessels and their skippers more accountable. We will be very pleased to work with Pacific Island countries to and other interested parties to develop and deliver training modules so that crews understand that what used to be taken as accepted practise in years gone by, just isn't acceptable anymore when the oceans are filling up with garbage and plastic. We see this as an important step on the journey to integrated ocean management. Where fisheries are part of a sustainable management regime for the ocean. Part of the getting fishers who are from distant regions to understand that they need to play their part in conservation of the environment. And when we put all these things together we've got a package that has come out of a commission meeting, which SPREP and other stake holders will try and work on to provide, if you like, an environmental sensitivity training for longline and per seine vessels in the region.
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