Business
European Fishing Vessels To Fish In Kiribati Waters
The agreement's for five years and renewable
Kiribati and the European Union in May completed a deal under which Spanish, French and Portuguese purse seine and long-line fishing boats can now catch tuna in Kiribati's 3.5 million square kilometres fishing zone.
Spanish purse-seine net vessels, the first European vessels to appear in the region, began fishing in Kiribati waters three years ago under a separate agreement. They will continue to do so under the new agreement with the European Union, of which Spain is a member.
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However, it could be some years before European long-liners move into the region since European owners have little knowledge of the region and will have to make basing and other arrangements, according to European Union officials.
The Spanish were the first European fishermen to appear in the central and western Pacific fishery, now the source of half the world's tuna supply, and dominated for four decades by Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, United States and now Chinese and Philippines operators.
In May, scientists warned that tuna was joining the species of fishing stocks destroyed or in danger of being so by heavy over-fishing in the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
Except for big eye and now yellowfin tuna species, the Pacific stock is claimed to be still relatively untouched.
The agreement Kiribati has is initially for five years, subsequently renewable by successive two-year periods.
According to a European Union document, the first year of the deal allows six European purse seiners and 12 long-liners to fish in the Kiribati exclusive economic zone (EEZ), one of the Pacific's largest and most productive.
A minimum of six purse seiners and 12 long-liners will be allowed in the second year. Later, at the request of the Europeans and depending on the Palau agreement, used by the Pacific Islands to limit the number of foreign purse-seine fleet in their region, licences for up to 11 purse seiners.
France is entitled to 30 percent of available purse seiner licences and Spain 70 percent. Spain and Portugal can claim six long line licenses each.
Fishing in the 3.5-million square kilometre Kiribati EEZ is some of the best in the Pacific. Kiribati, which derives several million dollars in fishing licence revenue from Asian sources, will be paid 546,000 Euros (about US$600,000) for the first year and 416,000 Euros (about US$446,000) annually in the following years, with 100,000 Euros of this money to be spent a year on fisheries management, conservation and research purposes.
The payments will be made whether or not Europeans fish in the EEZ, according to the European Union. These payments, based on actual catches, will be increased by up to 100 percent if catches exceed 8400 tons in the first year and 6400 tons in the following years. However, the Europeans don't expect their fleet catches will ever reach 16,800 tons.
Fishing boats will additionally pay an annual licence fee of 21,000 Euros for a purse seiner and 4200 Euros for a long-liner plus 35 Euros per ton caught.
They will agree to discharge fish at least three times a year to a licenced fish carrier in a Kiribati port and obtain all the supplies and services they need that are obtainable in Kiribati ports. High seas fish transfers are banned.
European vessels will carry a minimum of two Kiribati crew and Kiribati observers will be allowed to be aboard the vessels for a maximum of 20 percent of their fishing trips.
The agreement sets catch reporting requires the European vessels to carry radio beacons so that their movements can be tracked by satellite by the Forum Fisheries Agency.
It's not clear whether Kiribati will benefit more from the European agreement than those it has with Asian fishermen, although the Europeans believe it may be.
"This is because the European Union requires transparency while the Asian agreements are not published," one European Union official told Islands Business.
The Europeans lay stress on the agreement's provisions for fisheries conservation and research.
Even if the Europeans take the agreement to the maximum number of vessels allowed, 11 purse seiners and 12 long-liners, its Kiribati fleet will be minute compared with about 1200 Asian and United States vessels licensed to fish in the Pacific Islands' EEZs by the end of August 2002, according to the Forum Fisheries Agency, the regulator backed by 16 Pacific countries, including Kiribati.
Asian and the dwindling United States fleet lift about 1 million tons of tuna a year from the central and western Pacific, about 800,000 tons by purse seiners and 200,000 tons by long-liners.
