Cover Story
Fishing for a Future
First-World Nations Want More Pacific Fish
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will feed himself for a lifetime.” This admonition, often invoked to distinguish between aid as charity and aid as development assistance, has been looking a little threadbare for some time. For the average Pacific Islander, the daily fish more commonly comes in a can labeled “Mackerel” or “Tuna.” While most fishing on a large, profit-making scale is done by someone else, often someone from far away. A major issue in Pacific fisheries has long been one of foreign exploitation of the region's resources.
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Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea and, now, the European Union, who have over-fished their own waters, all have their eyes on Pacific fish to meet domestic demand. In regional fisheries jargon, they’re referred to as the Deep Water Fishing Nations. And these DWFNs are approaching Island countries with open wallets—some of the money in the form of aid, some in the form of under-the-table contributions to local politicians and some for licensing or percentage-of-catch fees. (see related story)
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The term “fisheries” often accommodates far more activity than is generally realized, and may include a number of sub-sectors including industrial, coastal, commercial, artisanal, aquaculture and subsistence: everything from tuna to trochus and beyond.
But the heavily industrialized tuna industry is where the big money is. The Pacific Ocean is the planet’s richest source of tuna, providing 50 percent of the annual world catches of albacore, big eye, skipjack and yellow fin. In 1998, catches for these species in the Pacific reached 2.3 million tons, compared with 0.7 million in the Indian Ocean and 0.4 million in the Atlantic Ocean.
So it’s hardly surprising that small Island states want a greater piece of that action, more than merely collecting license fees from DWFNs, most of which, so far, have been from East Asia. An extensive report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization makes this clear. “For economic security reasons South Pacific States and territories place high priority on the development of national industries (fleet and processing) as they consider that domestic industry affords them a greater degree of control over the sector. The same degree of security does not exist with DWFN operations.”
Certainly not, one might add, with so much of the catch often under-reported. The value-added aspects of transshipment, handling and processing, can in some cases, rival in economic importance the value of the fish harvested.
A recent example of this thinking is provided by the Cook Islands. The Cooks have an Exclusive Economic Zone of 1,830,000 sq. km (1,137,162 sq. miles), extending over 20 degrees of latitude. Not bad for a country of only 17,500 people.
But try buying fresh fish on Rarotonga. The SPC estimates put the total allowable catch for the country’s surface fisheries at 44,000 tons and for long-lining at 6,000 tons. But the Cooks simply cannot afford to enter the highly competitive surface fishing game, with its expensive gear and its fluctuating returns. Nonetheless, says Lindsay Chapman, SPC fisheries development adviser, “tuna long-lining has a real potential and this is the area that development should focus on initially.”
This kind of potential may take some time to realize; in the meantime DWFNs are casting their nets even more widely. Late last year the European Union and Kiribati entered into a new bilateral fisheries agreement for an initial period of three years. This is the first such agreement concluded by the EU in the Pacific and under it, EU vessels will fish exclusively for tuna. The EU’s financial contribution will be 1,378,000 euros (US$1,443,868), part of which will go towards enhancing Kiribati’s participation in regional and international fisheries organizations and supporting the country’s institutional capability in fisheries.
Firms engaged in fish processing in the Islands have suffered mixed fortunes. Solomon Taiyo Ltd., a joint venture between giant Japanese multinational Maruha Corporation and the Solomon Islands, was widely hailed for a time as an example of cooperation between large and small states. Two years ago the unstable nature of the Solomons provided a reason, or at least an excuse, for the Japanese to withdraw. In Fiji, Levuka-based PAFCO, 99.5 percent government-owned, has been in and out of financial trouble for years, but was recently given a new lease on life by the U.S. firm Bumble Bee, which claims some 40 percent of the U.S. market for canned tuna.
In the American-affiliated areas of Micronesia, Hawaii and American Samoa, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council is entrusted by U.S. law with policy making and management of fisheries in the U.S. EEZ, an area of nearly 1.5 million sq. miles. One of eight regional councils in the U.S., the agency attempts to promote sustainability of fish stocks in its area of responsibility. Council Executive Director Kitty M. Simonds, like many Americans, is fascinated by new technologies that have begun to solve some of the crucial environmental issues related to fishing.
Bycatch, which refers to the “collateral damage” of the fishing industry, like the hooking of sea turtles or the catching of sea bird in nets is one such issue. At a recent conference, the Council brought together fisherman from the Atlantic coast of the U.S. with Pacific fisherman. “It was really exciting to see the sharing,” Simonds says. “The Atlantic guys demonstrated the ACR Dehooker, which can remove hooks from bycatch like dolphins and turtles.” Another technological solution to the bycatch issue is the underwater setting shoot, which distributes bait many feet below the ocean surface so that seabirds do not congregate and get caught in the nets.
But environmentalists, like Hawaii’s Stephanie Fried of the NGO Environmental Defense, are dubious about these seeming solutions. And they are critical of both the fishing industry and some of the regional regulatory agencies.
For instance, Fried says the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council is scientifically compromised, serving political agendas and short-term financial gain for a tiny handful of fishers. “They [the Council] are leading an all-out campaign to undermine existing federal protections for the NWHI, which are broadly supported by recreational fishers, Native Hawaiian leaders, and scientists.”
Countering Fried’s complaints is Council spokesman Paul Dalzell, who says that, “The Council is on record as supporting the designation of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a National Marine Sanctuary. Fried’s comments betray a wilful misunderstanding of federal fishery management and the Council process.”
Environmental conflicts with regulators are just another sample of the tensions building in the region between dwindling supplies and increasing demand, between struggling Island governments and distant metropolitan countries with big markets and fat aid budgets. Finally, there is tension between the fishing industry and sometimes-compromised regulators. All these complex dynamics are making the story of our regional fisheries the stuff of high international drama.
