Fisheries/Aquaculture
Tuna Industry Generates Jobs, Worries
Tuna Industry Generates Benefits, But at What Cost to the Environment?
For an economy flogged by an Asian Development Bank-supported reform program and declining American aid flow in the late 1990s, the expansion of tuna fisheries income was nearly life saving. In late 1997, the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority, with technical assistance from the Asian Development Bank, revamped its operations with a new business-friendly policy. This unusual development led to the establishment of a major tuna transshipment operation in Majuro, the opening of a PM&O/Star Kist tuna loining plant, and the return of Japanese vessels to fishing in the area.
Direct tuna fisheries license revenue increase from an average of around $2 million in the early 1990s to nearly $5 million in 1999, with a multiplying spin-off economic impact from the use by hundreds of vessels of Majuro as a port of call. But as so often with a boom business, there is a downside: for Majuro, it’s been the ongoing pollution wrought by the dozens of tuna vessels visiting the lagoon, as well as a the development of a significant trade in prostitution, with Asian women brought into the country to service the fishermen.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
In mid-2001, with the tuna transshipment operations well-established and into their fourth year, criticisms and concern about marine pollution reached a crescendo, with even — and especially — the pro-business Chamber of Commerce weighing in with its worry about lack of enforcement of government anti-pollution regulations. Almost on a weekly basis, people were reporting specific sightings of fuel or unwanted fish dumped into the lagoon. The public outcry on pollution in the past year has led to about half a dozen vessels being charged with polluting the lagoon; in several cases, up to $18,000 was collected in fines.
 |
|
|
In August, a community outcry about the growing prostitution trade led to the introduction of a law to criminalize prostitution — there was no law against it previously — with the imposition of harsh penalties for anyone found guilty.
There is no disagreement that the use of Majuro as a transshipment port is good for the economy. Moreover, it’s one of the few industries in this former U.S. territory that is generating income from external sources, not just re-circulating U.S. funding given to the national government.
Since 1997, when the fisheries department cut the red tape and vessel entry fees, Taiwanese, South Korean, Federated States of Micronesia and other purse seiners have brought their tuna catches to Majuro, where they are off-loaded to large mother ships that anchor for two-to-three weeks at a time in order to fill their holds with tuna before heading off to canneries in Asia.
It’s estimated that each purse seiner spends more than $17,000 in Majuro per visit, spending that supports retail stores, restaurants, bars and hotels. Many of the purse seiners also buy fuel locally. In 1998, Majuro received 133 visits by purse seiners for transshipment, resulting in an estimated $2.2 million into the local economy. The next year it ballooned to 322 visits, for $5.4 million. Although it declined slightly in 2000, the estimated spin-off revenue was about $4.5 million—still big money in a country with a national budget of about $100 million.
As the number of pollution incidents increased—or at least became more noticeable—this year, more and more local residents began demanding enforcement action by law enforcement agencies. One problem is that there are so many agencies supposed to be involved in lagoon monitoring — the Environmental Protection Authority, national and local police forces, Sea Patrol, the Attorney General’s office, the Marine Resources Authority and the Port Authority — that buck-passing has been as inevitable as the pollution from the large number of vessels in the lagoon. There have been some notable successes in prosecuting polluters, and the acquisition in August of a patrol boat by the Majuro Atoll Local Government’s police force injected some needed energy into the lagoon surveillance operation.
On balance since the start of transshipment operations four years ago, the national government, local businesses and those involved in prostitution have reaped significant economic benefits, while Majuro’s marine environment has suffered. Economically, it’s expected to get much better in the near future, with the arrival of up to 60 Asian longline fishing vessels that will be based in Majuro in an operation similar to one that existed in the early- and mid-1990s. But the lagoon’s woes may just be beginning, since based on past experience, many of the longliners have no holding tanks for human waste—just a hole over the water.
Photo: Giff Johnson
