FFA says critical tuna issues left dangling

Transcript

The regional fishery advisory body, the Forum Fisheries Agency, says critical issues have been left dangling after a key meeting last week of the Tuna Commission.

The 17 FFA countries represent the largest bloc at the commission which was expected to come up with new measures to control dwindling tuna stocks.

The Tuna Commission brings together Pacific countries and territories and distant water fishing nations to sustainably manage migratory fish like tuna in the western and central Pacific.

The FFA's Deputy Director-General Wez Norris told Sally Round the Pacific countries including the powerful Parties to the Nauru Agreement members found obstruction at nearly every turn.

WEZ NORRIS: FFA members and PNA members walked in with a range of proposals that we expected co-operation and support on and of course we expected to have to negotiate them forward but what we faced rather was a lack of sense of urgency and a lack of willingness to even engage in the debate that will have pushed these issues forward.

SALLY ROUND: Presumably from distant water fishing nations? Any one in particular?

WN: No I wouldn't single out any player. Because the Commission touches on so many areas of work, there are obviously a range of countries sitting around the table and they each come with a brief to protect their own interests obviously so each time an issue comes up it's a different range of partners that we're trying to work with.

SR: One of the NGOs I've spoken to said one of the reasons why little progress was made was because of the unwillingness for compromise on both the part of the Pacific island countries and those distant water fishing nations. Would you agree with that?

WN: Yes I do agree and as I say these bodies are made up of everybody trying to protect their own interests so perhaps it's not surprising that it's difficult to find agreements. The key critical point though is that the Pacific island countries are by and large developing states and so it's not simply a matter of them being able to simply forego development opportunities or forego fishing opportunities. For many of them they are almost completely reliant on the resources that we're talking about. So the attitude that exists in other parts of the world where every single player can simply tighten their belt a notch really doesn't apply in the Pacific.

SR: Now the Commission is going to come under new leadership. Do you think these challenges are going to be able to be addressed under  Feleti Teo?

WN: Yes, I think the WCPFC has the perfect opportunity now to demonstrate that it can break new ground and it can do what it's mandated to do which is create sustainable and economic management of fisheries. We have a very strong secretariat team that will now be headed up by Feleti Teo and we're very very happy that that appointment's been made. He brings to the role what we consider to be the perfect combination of technical strength, administrative strength and just general exposure to the region and the issues and the players around the table and that will be complemented by the new Commission chair as well, Rhea Ross Christian from the Republic of Marshall Islands who will also be a driving force towards picking up the pace with which WCPFC attacks some of these issues.

SR: So has the Commission up til now been hampered by its leadership?

WN: What we've seen at the FFA secretariat is the Commission has been through cycles. In the first couple of years because it was a new entity and everyone was approaching it in the spirit of compromise and getting things done we saw a period of very politic decision-making and some quite ground-breaking measures were introduced. Following that there's always a period of consolidation and our view is that perhaps some of the Commission members felt that they'd given away too much too fast and so we saw what we consider to be a pullback from some of the members. Over the last few years we've been trying to get out of that and introduce new management measures. Again I don't lay the blame at anybody. These are consensus-based decision-making entities and everybody's got to accept responsibility when it doesn't happen right  and everybody's got to accept the praise when it does happen right.

SR: On a positive note where do you think the biggest gains were made at last week's gathering?

WN: There were a couple of steps forward. First of all one of the key issues FFA members have been arguing since the inception of the Commission is that all countries need to provide very fine scale data to the WCPFC because without it they can't do stock assessments or compliance action. We've been hampered by the major fishing states ever since the rules were agreed in 2007 but at this Commission meeting there was a small but very significant step forward that will see the last four big fleets starting to provide the operational data for the core area of the fishery. So that in itself is a bg achievement, primarily led by the Republic of Marshall Islands  and Japan. I guess the other area where there was certainly an achievement was in the management of shark stocks. FFA members put a very comprehensive measure forward an unfortunately there wasn't time at the end of the meeting to negotiate that fully through but we did get a cut down version that will result in the banning of what we call shark lines which take up to 50% of some of the critical species of sharks. So that's certainly an achievement as well.