Fishing For Balance

The commercial fishing industry is the second of two main revenue streams for the Solomon Islands, the top earner is forestry-and both exploit natural resources.Unlike the ruthless harvest and export of round logs that are owned by individuals, families and villages, this marine resource is owned by all Solomon Islanders and is currently more than sustainable; but it's an industry that needs to be carefully managed.

Adrian Wickham is a well-known Solomon Islander whose fame comes from both fishing and soccer. He's on the board of the Central Bank and is the general manager of NFD, a locally-based but foreign-owned fishing company. "We're incorporated here," he likes to stress.

Solomon Islands fishermen mend nets when not at sea.

"Basically," he says, "there should be maximum benefit to the Solomon Islands people by foreign fishers-and the overall harvest in our waters must be sustainable."

NFD and the government-owned Soltai are the largest of the locally-based companies and both of these commercial fishing companies have been forced to close down for periods of time over the last three years due to the vagaries of fishing, and to the ethnic and civil tensions affecting Solomon Islands business across the board. NFD shut down in 2000, reopening in 2001 on a smaller scale.

When the Japanese partners pulled out of Solomon Taiyo in August 2000, their 22 pole-and-line vessels stopped operating. The following April, with 100 tons of tuna that was left in cold storage and a skeleton staff of 170 local people, the cannery was commissioned and fishing resumed in a moderate way. By September 2001, Soltai was inaugurated as a company fully owned by the Central and Western Provincial Governments. Its aging operating fleet-however high maintenance-was built back up to 12 boats.

"Normally," says Wickham, "the ups and downs of fishing are due to mother nature so we're dependant on climate and weather. Tuna is a migratory species and we have to find the fish. By all accounts, 2002 was a rotten year but 2003 is up."

Secretariat of the Pacific Community tagging indicates Skipjack and Yellow Fin stock levels are very high. The other local species, Big Eye is a deep traveler and not targeted by the purse-seiners, but by Soltai's pole-and-line fishers.

NFD has three purse seiners. Now Soltai has just 10 pole-and-line vessels, therefore the local catch effort was much higher in the 1990's than it is today. The 2003 Solomon Island domestic catch was 17,000 tons, which is very small compared to the rest of Western Pacific's sustainable catch of 500,000 tons.

The government and Soltai recently hosted a Japanese delegation and asked for two new pole-and-line vessels, each with a larger capacity than boats in the existing fleet. This bilateral trading arrangement could return the Japanese-licensed vessel access to the archipelago's pelagic waters.

A Soltai boat heads to sea.

This is a worry, says Wickham. "The 'Slot' or the inner main group archipelago has in the past been restricted to locally-based industry and to pole-and-line vessels, therefore to Soltai. Foreign fishers come here because they've destroyed their owned fishing grounds."

The real problem however is in the Exclusive Economic Zone, where licensing agreements with all foreign-based vessels are under investigation. The process for obtaining licenses, how much they're sold for and how many vessels are operating is not transparent. While all foreign vessels have to register with the Forum Fisheries Agency and to have VMS (Vessel Monitoring Satellite) equipment, during the civil tensions in the Solomons, there was very little or no surveillance. Currently there is the FSM Treaty, bilateral agreements with Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and multi-lateral agreements including the U.S. and soon to be the EU to monitor.

"It's becoming more apparent the Ministry of Fisheries are not giving the Solomon Islands people the full benefit of its resource," says Wickham. "Skull duggery in the industry has to be revealed, large back-handers were distributed to a few people in the licensing deptartment, and everyone was taking advantage of a lax system."

He continues: "They [the foreign companies] come in when the fishing is good, there's no import or export duties, only a trans shipment levy. The tax regime is punitive for the locally-based tuna industry, but even that's not a level playing field. Government-owned Soltai has major tax concessions. The shareholders of Tri-marine, the NFD parent company want to invest further, but Government taxes are too severe for them."

As RAMSI continues to guide economic reform and to clean up elicit practices in the government arena, the 97/98 Tuna Management Plan could now be implemented. But Wickham says the fisheries department continues to ignore it.

"It was a perfect plan for ensuring conservation of the Solomon Islands fishing resource. All the stake holders were represented; the fishing companies, Government agencies, women's and environmental groups," he says.

If order prevails, the future looks good. Soltai has a value-added strategy on no, product. A loining factory was commissioned November 2003. Tuna loins are vacuum packed and exported to Europe for canning. The company plans to reinforce its fishing effort with new boats and one purse seining vessel, either leased or chartered, to supply its cannery, loining and smoked fish operations. The supply currently cannot meet the demand. The company now employs 860 people, employment contracts are now negotiated and casual labor is often required.

In an ideal world, fishing quotas would be guided by commonsense, not greed. If operated under Solomon Island fisheries regulations, it's a sustainable operation. The post RAMSI feeling is much more confident, says Wickham. "Fishers are the last of the hunter gatherers, no two days are ever the same and it's fabulous out there."