Better management of tuna fisheries can help Pacific Island countries gain as much as US$344 million per year in additional sustainable revenues and create 7,500 to 15,000 jobs by 2040, according to a new World Bank report.
The Pacific Possible: Tuna Fisheries report outlines a best-case scenario for the year 2040, where tuna fisheries will play a greater role in the region’s economic growth. The report recommends five policy strategies: more regional integration; efficient fishing practices and catch limits; flexible access and harvest rights for fleets; investment in skills and labour; and the inclusion of coastal communities in fisheries planning.
“The key challenge for Pacific Island countries is to sustainably harness a greater share of the benefits from their tuna fisheries without depleting fish stocks,” said the report’s co-author, Duke University researcher John Virdin. “By improving sustainability through maintaining firm and shared catch limits, and by increasing economic value through collaborative access regimes such as the vessel day scheme, Pacific Island countries have the potential to significantly boost public revenues and support thousands of new jobs.”
The report builds on work undertaken by the Forum Fisheries Agency and the Pacific Community through the Regional Roadmap for Sustainable Pacific Fisheries, which was endorsed by Pacific Island Forum leaders in 2015.
The waters of Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands are home to one of the world’s richest, and last, healthy tuna fisheries, supplying some 34% of the world’s tuna catch each year, with an estimated delivered value of US$3.4 billion in 2013. From these resources, Pacific Island countries received net economic benefits of approximately US$500 million in 2013 – a figure that the Pacific Possible report suggests could be much greater.
