New Zealand calls on PNA to respect Pacific Leaders

Transcript

New Zealand's Ambassador for Pacific Economic Development has called on the Parties to the Nauru Agreement to respect the wishes of Pacific leaders regarding the future of fisheries management in the region.

This comes after scathing criticism from the chief executive of the regional tuna management organisation of the Pacific Island Forum leaders decision to look into the merits of replacing the PNA's Vessel Day Scheme with a New Zealand led-quota system.

New Zealand's Shane Jones told Koroi Hawkins leaders at the recent forum meeting in Papua New Guinea called for a 12 month body of work to look into the future of tuna fisheries management in the region and says PNA should heed their wishes.

SHANE JONES: I think the first thing that we need to acknowledge is that the leaders of the Forum have endorsed a body of work to take place to see if the VDS Vessel Day Scheme can be improved. Now certain officials may not be happy with what the leaders have agreed to but John Key, the prime minister of Australia and all the leaders of the Pacific have endorsed a body of work to take place. Which will involve the PNA the FFA and the Forum and that report will be presented to the leaders in 2016. So I think it is very important that what people are saying publicly does not undermine or diminish the status of the leaders of the Forum that is the first thing I would say. The second thing is that the FFA, SPC and a whole host of other stakeholders have pointed out that key tuna stocks are suffering sustainability attacks. Now this is a matter of mathematics and science this is not a matter of political rhetoric, this is not a matter of patch protection. So the challenge then becomes how can the current system be improved so that sustainability is actually strengthened. And at the pith of this debate is the quest to balance current effort and take against the scientific evidence which says sustainability problems are looming large.

KOROI HAWKINS: So are you saying the decision has not yet been made whether they will continue with the Vessel Day Scheme or whether they will move to a  quota led system?

SJ: Yeah I want to repeat this essential point the Forum leaders at Papua New Guinea gave a mandate for a body of work to be completed and reported back in 2016 to improve upon the current system of managing the take and the rights distributed to harvest the tuna pelagic resource. This is something that has been endorsed by the leaders. So I think it is incredibly unwise of us to undermine those leaders. Its a 12 month body of work and I look forward to seeing what comes out of the other end of it.

KH: If I might just go back to my original question and get a comparison between the Vessel Day Scheme and the New Zealand fisheries management system?

SJ: What we have at the moment, predominantly in the skipjack fishery is a system where days are sold enabling harvesters from a host of different fishing nations, some distant some in the Pacific, to harvest fish. You can harvest as much as you like within a given day. The difference in New Zealand's system is that you can only harvest up to a sustainable maximum catch. And it's look I am not going underestimate how difficult it is but one of the challenges is to ensure that when a total allowable catch is set, that it is not exceeded. Now whether or not that can be achieved across a multiple number of nations, I think it can be. And I think in fairness to the advocates for the VDS system. It's been a very good first step but there is no end of scope to improving fisheries management systems. And this is why the leaders have endorsed it. This is not something that the fishing industry has come up with, this is not something that bureaucrats have foisted on anyone. This is something that the leaders of the Pacific at the signal event known as the Forum meeting have endorsed.

KH: Finally, looking to the future once this body of work that you are talking about is in, what is the next steps?

SJ: Well I was hugely encouraged by the invitation from PNA executives to invite New Zealanders to go and meet with them and to get a briefing as to why the Vessel Day Scheme is beyond reproach and needs no further improvements. So I am looking forward to some of the kiwi's going up there and meeting with them. But I think it is important that we bear in mind that New Zealand is going to continue to support fisheries administration and fisheries management throughout the Pacific via SPC, via FFA, with bilateral arrangements. But it would be derelict for Kiwi's not to acknowledge that the science is showing sustainability pressures, pressures upon sustainability are growing and growing. So what is needed is a total allowable catch. So that we don't have too many vessels or too much effort chasing too few fish. And there will be no doubt a host of meetings, there will be a host of seminars there will be a lot of dialogue, there will an enormous amount of debate, potential for misinformation but New Zealand itself went through this in the 1980's. Other fishing nations are constantly dealing with how do you strike a balance between biological pressure on sustainabilities, stock sustainability and the zest for nations and politicians to maximise revenue.