Bigeye population reaching its limits, and measures must be taken to limit bigeye catches.
Fishing nations need to reduce bigeye catches in the Pacific Ocean by 30 percent, according to experts at the 9th Regular Session of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) on Sunday.
The area covered by the WCPFC provides more than 50 percent of all the tuna catch in the world, said Asis Perez, head of thePhilippine Bureau of Fisheries.
The commission, which groups over 30 countries and territories ranging from the United States, China and Australia to small Pacific island nations, has a special role in protecting tuna, he added.
Because tuna is a migratory species that moves from one country's territory to another, cooperation is crucial to sustaining the resource.
WCPFC executive director Glenn Hurry said bigeye tuna, one of the most caught species, was reaching itslimits and measures must be taken to limit the catching of this species.
The region was producing about 151,000 metric tons of bigeye tuna annually, and this was too high, Hurry said.
But the catching of the other popular varieties likeskipjack, yellowfin and Pacific albacore -- should not increase either, Hurry said.
Skipjack tuna catch was about 1.4 million metric tons last year, while yellowfin tuna catch was at about 550,000 metric tons in 2010, Hurry said, adding it should ideally be at450,000 metric tons a year.
"We want to develop a conservation measure for the catching of bigeye, yellowfin and skipjack tuna," he said.
Among the proposed measures is extending controls on"fish aggregating devices"-- floating objects which attract fish in the high seas, making it easier for fishing boats to haul them in.
The five-day forum in the Philippines will also takeup possibly closing the the so-called "high-seas pockets" in the Pacific where tunafishing is permitted but where there are reports of some fishing boats violating commission rules.