Pacific Tuna Commission meeting helpful despite criticism
The Forum Fisheries Agency says most fisheries will be in a better place after last week's Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting.
Transcript
The Forum Fisheries Agency says most fisheries will be in a better place after last week's Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting.
Conservation groups and the Parties to the Nauru Agreement have expressed disappointment over the meeting saying it didn't do enough to protect Pacific fisheries.
However FFA Deputy Director-General Wez Norris told Koro Vaka'uta three of the four priorities were achieved at the meeting.
WEZ NORRIS: FFA members are very committed to developing what we call harvest strategies. This is where you set target reference points for each fishery which describes the status you want each fishery to be in and then pre-agreed management rules that will deliver that status. Those were the priorities. In particular they wanted to first of all get agreement on a work plan that will drive the development of these harvest strategies for each of the key fisheries. Second of all, get an agreed target reference point for the Skipjack fishery. The last of our key priorities was what we call the compliance monitoring scheme which is the process which the commission uses to assess how well each member is living up to its commitments. This year there were some very significant amendments made to that scheme that will increase the transparency and robustness of the process. The Albacore target reference point was the priority that unfortunately we weren't able to get across the line.
KORO VAKA'UTA: How important was it to get that Albacore movement?
WN: It was very important. The FFA members have been putting forward proposals to reform the management of this fishery and they've been unsuccessful. We were really hoping that being able to step back away from the management rules themselves but have a more strategic discussion of where we want the fishery to actually be. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in that regard so it's back to the drawing board.
KV: Will there be an opportunity at some stage to get movement on that though?
WN: We're going to have to turn our view inward and start doing a lot more work just amongst ourselves. China in particular as a major flag state in the fishery has just finished a very aggressive fleet expansion programme so having just introduced a whole fleet of new vessels they are not particularly interested in talking about reductions so we need to fix our own management scheme.
KV: Things like increased surveillance and tuna transhipment, was that addressed at an appropriate level?
WN: No unfortunately it wasn't. The only real proposal that was on the table in that regard was a proposal from FFA members to prohibit transhipment in what we call the 'high seas pocket'. This is the area of international waters that are surrounded by the Exclusive Economic Zones. Their known to be illegal fishing hotspots and in particular a lot of transhipment takes place there and that was one of our key disappointments.
KV: There were some positives in terms of regional observers like methods to keep them a bit safer.
WN: That was very positive. Observers are really at the pointy end of fisheries management. They are out there by themselves. It's a dangerous job. It's a difficult job but it's one that is very, very important so anything the commission and the individual countries can do to make their workplace safer and more secure is a good investment.
KV: So, in general, I guess after this meeting, things are at a better state than they were pre-meeting?
WN: I think I would describe it as making incremental progress. There were some key issues obviously along the lines of Bigeye Tuna that are growing in urgency but when you look at the adoption of the harvest strategy work plan, the Skipjack target reference point, the improvement of observer-related issues, the compliance monitoring scheme, it definitely represents forward progress.
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