My Say
The Tuna Headquarters Tussle
Divide and Conquer Strategies Are A Danger To Regional Fisheries
The tussle over where the new Tuna Commission headquarters will go was settled late in November by a vote of interested countries at a meeting in Manila. It will be located at Pohnpei, the seat of government for the Federated States of Micronesia.
But after the selection went to the FSM, Papua New Guinea and Tonga, both anxious to host such an important new regional institution for economic and prestige reasons, began campaigns to poach the selection to their shores. Then Fiji, Samoa and the Philippines, began pitching for it.
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The tussle got quite nasty. Even after FSM’s selection was confirmed, it continues with more hurt mutterings from Tonga and from one Papua New Guinea representative, who remarked that PNG was prepared to look for friends “in other directions.”
What worried regional fisheries officials was that the fracturing of much-vaunted Pacific Islands brotherhood might push the location of the commission the way of the Philippines, or even to the Asian mainland, thus removing it from the center to the fringe of the very tuna fishery it is being established to protect.
The Tuna Commission tussle ranks as one of the most unsavory regional affairs to stain Pacific regional relations for a long time. What’s more, it is an issue that will continue to rankle.
It illustrates that Forum countries that formally attach themselves to Forum decisions can’t be relied upon to keep their word.
It is too much to hope that the Forum, now 30 years old, can flourish immune from fallouts, big and little, between members. Pacific Islanders wouldn’t be human if they didn’t shaft each other from time to time. But we do have some vital common causes that can be lost, with dire consequences for all, unless we protect our common interest by presenting the strongest possible united front for fending off assaults on our resources.
One such cause is fishing. The Pacific Islands have the world’s last great intact fishery, not so intact as to be free of over-fishing in some sectors, but of enormous appeal to Asian and, now, to European fishing nations.
At much less than 10 percent of its market value, the income the Pacific Islands gain from their fish is pitifully small.
Some Asian fishing nations play games with Pacific Islanders, and the Islanders are not the winners. With the appearance of the first European fishermen in the region, fishing stakes will rise.
The Europeans are prepared to pay higher access fees. Since at least some important tuna species are clearly now being over-fished, Pacific Islanders must impose tighter catch restrictions.
The new Tuna Commission will be a vital instrument for conserving the Pacific’s fishing areas. Strategically, it would be a serious loss for the Pacific Islanders if it was located outside their region. Pohnpei is not at all the most practical location in the region for it, but it is still in the region.
The fight over the selection of the headquarters site is other lesson. It shows how vulnerable to economic self-destruction the Pacific Islands can be made by the insertion of wedges by exploiters in vulnerable places.
Robert Keith-Reid is publisher of Islands Business. He can be reached at: Rkeith-reid@ibi.com.fj
