The Parties to the Nauru Agreement say foreign fishing nations must financially compensate them for their work managing sustainable tuna fisheries.
The head of the PNA, Dr Transform Aqorau, says the grouping of eight Pacific countries is a global leader in tuna conservation and management but it has long faced what it calls the conservation burden.
The Pacific News Centre reports him as saying the PNA spends money and time conserving tuna in each country's exclusive economic zone, then foreign fishing nations benefit without sharing the burden of managing this resource.
Dr Aqorau says when members of Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, or Tuna Commission, meet in Cairns next week the PNA will be calling on the foreign fishing nations to recognise this burden and provide financial compensation.
The PNA countries estimate their three-month ban on the use of fish aggregating devices costs them 60 million US dollars a year in fisheries revenue.
