Stop Overfishing Of Bigeye Tuna, Says PNA To Tuna Commission Members

News 14:59 03/04/2012

(atuna.com) The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) called for foreign fishing nations to stop their overfishing of bigeye tuna by taking action at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) meeting next week.

Overfishing of bigeye tuna, a popular sashimi fish, caught by longline fishing and as by-catch in purse seine fishing, is a problem in the region, despite healthy levels of other tunas such as skipjack tuna (commonly used for canned tuna). While new science released to the Commission said if current PNA and WCPFC conservation and management measures continue overfishing of bigeye tuna would discontinue, some foreign fishing nations are pushing for exemptions to the rules and lower conservation standards. The PNA are calling for foreign fishing nations to take responsibility for their overfishing in national waters and the high seas. The PNA are eight countries that cooperate to manage tuna - Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. “The PNA are global leaders in tuna conservation and management, taking many voluntary measures to make skipjack tuna sustainable and limiting the by-catch of bigeye tuna. Meanwhile, the foreign fishing nations have done nothing to stop overfishing,” said PNA Director Dr Transform Aqorau. “Year after year at the Tuna Commission we hear countries like Korea, Japan, US, EU and other foreign fishing nations argue for special exemptions from the rules and about their industry’s need to continue overfishing. Enough wasting time – the PNA wants to see foreign fishing nations tell us what they are going to do to stop overfishing of bigeye tuna.” The PNA have already contributed to bigeye tuna conservation by closing the high seas areas around their countries. Meanwhile, 20% of bigeye tuna catch comes from in the high seas, mostly by Latino/EU and US purse seine vessels and by Chinese and US longline fishing vessels. Earlier this year, the PNA also pushed for changes for the US-Pacific Islands fishing treaty that allowed the US large catches of tuna in Pacific Island waters. The PNA have also put limits on the use of Fish Aggregating Devices (or FADS), man-made structures that provide shelter for fish in the open ocean. Setting purse seine nets around FADS often results in catches of juvenile bigeye tuna that have not yet had a chance to breed, contributing to overfishing of the species. PNA also has Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification of skipjack tuna caught without FADS, providing further incentive for much of the PNA supply of tuna to be FAD-free. The PNA also introduced 100% coverage of observers on their purse seine vessels so bycatch of bigeye tuna can be closely monitored. “Given that the PNA is made up of small island developing countries with limited staff and budgets, we have contributed a great deal to conserving bigeye tuna, which has very limited financial benefit to us as most of our catch is skipjack tuna. Countries such as Japan and the US should help solve the problem of bigeye conservation created by their high consumption of bigeye tuna. They have plenty of resources and they should take voluntary conservation measures with their own fleets, since they are the ones who will get the major financial benefits from bigeye conservation. We want all Tuna Commission members to take voluntary conservation measures and to call on processors and other major buyers to take business measures to mitigate by-catches and report back on the measures they have taken.” Each year the WCPFC brings together the Pacific Island countries, Asian nations, US, EU and other foreign fishers to meet and decide rules for fishing of tuna throughout the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, the world’s largest tuna fishery, supplying 50% of the global tuna supply. This year the Commission must decide on a conservation and management measure for tuna at its annual meeting from 26-30 March.

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