PNA CEO Dr Transform Aqorau asked delegates in his keynote address to the 5th Pacific Tuna Forum 2015 in Fiji to work with the organisation to support the fisheries framework management it has already put in place.
In his major fisheries policy address, Dr Aqorau highlighted key issues in the tuna fishery in the central and western Pacific, including the evolution of PNA-driven management of the purse seine industry, strategic reviews of the Vessel Day Scheme (VDS) and the rollout of a VDS for longliners.
Dr Aqorau said PNA has already embarked on its own review based on recommendations from an independent review of the VDS that it commissioned in 2014.
Among key findings of this independent review was that VDS fees actually collected by PNA nations — currently at a minimum benchmark of US$8,000 per fishing day — are significantly below what has been attainable.
“This is borne out by the fact that benchmark VDS fees have increased drastically over the past few years while the operating conditions in the fishery have remained comparatively stable, and last year dipped significantly with no impact on fees,” Dr Aqorau said.
On the key issue of which management system is right for the PNA fishery, catch limits or harvest-based systems such as PNA’s VDS, Dr Aqorau said the independent review of the VDS concluded that catch limits were superior as a management tool. But the VDS suffers from the fundamental weakness that fishing effort is a multi-dimensional activity.
“There has to be better control overall, including in Indonesia and the Philippines, and the high seas, particularly the Eastern High Seas areas, which are open,” he said.
This is why PNA has moved this year to establish the first-ever VDS for longliners to control the level of longline fishing in PNA waters and increase this fishery’s contribution to sustainable development in PNA nations. Operations of high seas longliners are “concealed by the withholding of operational data, and a very low rate of observer coverage".
PNA’s vision is for a longline fishery “that is largely made up of national fleets landing into their domestic ports, and fleets based locally in PNA members’ EEZs landing their catch into PNA ports for processing and export,” he said.
It will be possible to shift the VDS scheme for longliners to a catch limit system at some point in the future. But first, Dr Aqorau said, the longline industry needs to be reformed and brought under control with effective monitoring of catches.
