Fisheries
The State Of Our Tuna Industry
Why is there a slump in catches?
Poor fishing weather or overfishing? A slump of tuna catches in Fiji and Samoa and some other regions has made the security of the US$2000 million Western and Central Pacific tuna fishery a flaring issue.
In Samoa, poor fishing has been blamed on unfavourable climate conditions. The movement of tuna schools, in terms of the depth they swim at and the migratory courses they take, is critically determined by slight changes of ocean temperature.
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In Fiji, Graham Southwick, head of Fiji Fish Ltd, the country's biggest fishing and fresh tuna export business, is locked in an angry confrontation with the government over what he alleges is the fatal overfishing of the marginal Fiji tuna fishery by Asian-controlled vessels.
He claims that corruption is behind the issue of more than double the number of licences that fisheries scientists with the Pacific Community's Oceanic Fisheries Programme (OFP) say the Fiji tuna stock can support.
Many Fiji vessels are idle due to poor fishing. Southwick says the whole industry is threatened. Some fisheries department officials have been sacked or moved sideways. The government line is that poor fishing is due to unfavourable climatic conditions. But it has agreed to a corruption investigation.
The Pacific tuna fishery targets four speciesâšskipjack, albacore, yellowfin and bigeye. More than a thousand overwhelmingly Asian fishing boats are licenced by the Forum Fisheries Agency, through which Pacific Islands governments regulate fishing, to fish in the region.
Also present is a declining American fleet, now down to fewer than 30 purse seine class ships and a small number of Spanish vessels that Kiribati allows in its 3.5 million square kilometres exclusive economic zone. The Chinese are pressuring islands governments to allow more of their boats into the region, and the European Union wants Pacific access for more European fishermen as an alternative to traditional European stocks damaged by ruthless over fishing.
While the Pacific Community's OFP has previously been confident that Pacific tuna are not overtaxed by fishing, except big-eye, it is not adopting a more cautious attitude. According to the latest available data, the skipjack stock, the least valuable species, continues to be in good condition with a 1.2-million tonne annual catch, believed to be at a sustainable level.
Albacore catch levels are also sustainable, but with a declining catch rate reported in some areas.
Yellowfin tuna stocks are close to being fully exploited and the OFP says there should be no increase in fishing juvenile yellowfin stocks Yellowfin is not yet over fished, but it is nearing full exploitation. Heavier fishing would not bring any long-term increase in yields and might move the stock to being over fished. Bigeye is being fished at levels that will cause over fishing in future, the OFP says. However, there is a "high level" of uncertainty about this. Bigeye fishing should be reduced, it says.
In 2002, the latest year for which catch figures are available, the Western and Central Pacific tuna fishery yielded an estimated total catch for all four species of 1,982,000 tonnes. It was the second highest annual catch since the record of 2,037,600 tonnes in 1998.
The skipjack was a record 1,321,900 tonnes.
The 438,000-tonne yellowfin catch was the lowest for six years and 65,000 tonnes below the 1998 record of 503,000 tonnes. The bigeye catch was 107,600 tonnes, slightly higher than 2001 and the albacore catch at 114,500 tonnes was slightly down on 2001.
Tuna travel long distances so that over-fishing in one region like Indonesia or the Philippines could impact adversely in other regions. More data about the Indonesian and Philippines stock is needed, if the health of Pacific Islands stocks is to be assessed more accurately, OFP says.
Recent poor fishing by small-scale longline fisheries in several Pacific Islands countries, or reduced catch rates, could be quite likely due to climatic cycles and intensifying local fishing activity.
Fishing businesses need to be aware of these causes and how they affect them. The OFP says it intends to work towards producing scientific analysis to make these factors more understandable to government and business planners.
The tagging of tuna so that their movements and age are understood is basic to research. The OFP wants more tagging done particularly as data from tagged fish can be applied to tuna in Indonesian and Philippines waters.
