Tuna Commission To Protect Juvenile Bigeye, Yellowfin

In mid-February the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) released the report of its December 2006 annual meeting which was held at Apia, Samoa. The Apia meeting was the third time that the Commission has met since its inaugural session at Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia in December 2004. The meeting was attended by representatives of 26 countries, France’s three Pacific territories and Chinese Taipei, all of which have a direct interest in the tuna fisheries of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO). It included the 17 members of the Honiara-based Forum Fisheries Agency and distant water fishing nations whose fleets fish in the WCPO. Six inter-governmental organizations and eight non-government organizations observed the meeting.

 

The meeting’s priority issues included consideration of scientific advice on the status of the region’s tuna stocks, the impact of current levels of fishing on those stocks, the challenge of developing the potential for increased harvests of skipjack tuna without threatening the sustainability of other tunas (such as juvenile bigeye and yellowfin tuna), means to reduce the impact of fishing for tuna on species caught incidentally during fishing operations (such as sea turtles, sea birds and sharks), the development and implementation of an integrated system to monitor fishing activity in the WCPO to ensure it complies with the conservation and management decisions of the Commission and means to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

 

The meeting received a summary of tuna catch information for the period up until the end of 2005 from the Oceanic Fisheries Programme of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC-OFP) which currently provides scientific and data management services to the Commission. Dr Dae Yeon Moon from Korea, who is Chairman of the Commission’s Scientific Committee, and Dr John Hampton from SPC, informed the meeting that, although some fleets were still to supply data for the full year of operations, the provisional total catch for 2005 in the WCPF Convention Area was 2.15 million metric tonnes (mt).

 

Dr Moon advised the Commission that “this is the highest annual catch recorded and an increase of around 5% on the previous record in 2004 (2.05 million mt)”. During 2005, purse-seine fleets harvested around 1.52 million mt or 71% of the total catch which is the highest catch ever recorded for that fishery. The pole-and-line fleets produced an estimated 205,872 mt (10%), the longline fishery an estimated 242,059 mt (11%) with the remainder (7%) being taken by troll gear and a variety of artisanal gears, mostly in eastern Indonesia and the Philippines. Dr Moon added “the tuna catch in the WCPFC Convention Area in 2005 represented 77% of the total Pacific Ocean tuna catch of 2.8 million mt and 49% of the global tuna catch. The world’s other major tuna fisheries are in the Atlantic Ocean, the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

 

Of particular interest to Commission members is the status of the region’s tuna stocks and whether or not they can sustain current, or even increased, levels of fishing. Dr Hampton informed the meeting that the consensus view of scientists was that the region’s skipjack and albacore resources are in a healthy condition with skipjack demonstrating a capability to support increased harvests. He advised the meeting “scientists caution against any further increases in harvests of yellowfin and bigeye tuna as, bigeye in particular, is demonstrating that recent levels of fishing may not be sustainable”. 

 

The Commission spent considerable time debating how to support further increases in skipjack catches while not threatening the sustainability of bigeye tuna. Bigeye are often taken as juveniles in association with skipjack particularly by purse seiners fishing on what are known as fish aggregating devices (FADs) or floating objects such as logs. The Chairman of the Commission, Mr Glenn Hurry from Australia, advised that “in response to this concern the Commission decided that, at its next annual session, it will adopt a legally binding conservation and management measure to reduce the harvest of juvenile bigeye and yellowfin taken when fishing around FADs. In the meantime, industry and governments have been encouraged to work together to try to find solutions to this challenge”.        

     

The Apia meeting also managed to complete further work aimed at reducing the impacts of tuna fishing on species taken incidentally during fishing operations.   “There is broad international support for reducing the catch of species that are not the target of fishing operations and that are often taken incidentally” said Andrew Wright, the Executive Director of the Pohnpei-based Secretariat for the Commission. “With global markets becoming increasingly demanding in terms of knowing the environmental impact of fishing operations for fish presented for sale on super market shelves there is a real incentive for industry and governments to support efforts to reduce incidental catch of non-target species” he said. 

 

In Apia the Commission adopted legally binding measures to mitigate the effect of fishing operations on sea birds and sharks and supported the development of a research programme concerning sea turtle interaction during tuna fishing operations. In addition, the Commission agreed to support a broad-based programme of research on broader ecosystem issues associated with tuna fisheries in the WCPO.     

 

Following on from its previous two meetings, the Apia meeting emphasized the need for the development of a comprehensive package of measures to monitor and report on fishing activity throughout the entire WCPFC Convention Area. The meeting confirmed that until a comprehensive and complimentary suite of measures aimed at deterring illegal fishing activity and encouraging compliance with the conservation and management decisions of the Commission are in place, and enforced, the long term sustainability of the region’s fish stocks will continue to be threatened. As a result, the Commission agreed to dedicate considerable resources in 2007 to the development of a satellite-based vessel monitoring system, a programme to coordinate the deployment of trained observers on tuna fishing vessels, a scheme to support the boarding and inspection of fishing vessels on the high seas, which breaks new ground in international fisheries law, and support for coastal States to increase their monitoring and inspection capacity for fishing vessels that enter their ports.   

 

Mr Wright said that IUU fishing is of particular concern in a region as geographically large as the WCPFC’s Convention Area. He said “WCPFC coastal State members are concerned that, while they do not have a capacity to effectively monitor all fishing activity, particularly on the high seas, the high seas are being used as a refuge for illegal fishing activity that often includes unauthorized incursions into the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of coastal States. He added that the size of the EEZs of some countries makes it difficult to maintain an on-going surveillance presence with the result that some fishing vessels, including domestic vessels, can undertake IUU fishing”.   Mr Hurry added “illegal fishing can also result in a fish stock being sent into a situation where drastic measures are required to re-build the stock. The economic implications for such a situation developing in the Pacific Islands region could threaten the viability of the tuna fishing industry and result in major hardship for already fragile economies”. 

 

The Chairman Glenn Hurry in summarizing the outcomes from the meeting said “…the last two meetings of the Commission have taken decisions to put in place the management frameworks and tools necessary to properly manage this fishery, however the next meeting will be critical in reducing the overall catch levels of bigeye and yellowfin tuna.” He went on to add “this is the world’s last great tuna fishery and it supports the aspirations and economies of a number of key Pacific island economies. All countries need to realize that early decisions must be taken to maintain the sustainability of these important fish stocks.” The Commission’s Secretariat will write to all members in June 2007 and remind them of their commitments at the Apia meeting to ensure decisions to protect the stock are taken at the next meeting.

 

The Commission now has an extremely busy 2007 before it. Work associated with the design and implementation of the vessel monitoring system, the regional observer programme and the high seas boarding and inspection scheme – the priority three elements of an integrated monitoring, control and surveillance scheme for the majority of members - will take considerable resources and effort. Scientists will undertake a new assessment of the status of the region’s yellowfin stocks, refine earlier work assessing the impact of FAD fishing on juvenile bigeye resources and commence a programme of research examining broader ecosystem issues associated with tuna fishing in the WCPO – including the mitigation of by-catch of non-target species taken incidentally during fishing operations.