The European Union and the Solomon Islands have initialled a new bilateral Fisheries Agreement for a first period of three years running from 1 January 2005. It is exclusively for tuna fishing for EU vessels, at 6,000 tonnes of tuna per annum.
The two sides, according to an EU statement, will also work to define a fisheries policy in the Solomon Islands and how to implement it.
The EU will pay € 400,000 per year (rising by €65,000 per extra license if more boats are allowed from year two), of which 30 per cent will target responsible fishing in the country's waters. Stocks will be jointly monitored on the basis of scientific advice. That advice may produce alterations in the fishing opportunities granted to EU vessels, and they would also be modified within the limitations established by the Palau Arrangement.
This coordinates management measures for the purse seine fishery in the Western Pacific area, the statement said.
In the first year of application, four EU (main interest is Spanish and French) purse seine vessels and 10 longliners will be authorised to fish tuna and vessel numbers may go up in year two, depending on stock assessments from the "Western and Central Pacific Tuna Fishery Overview and Status of Stocks".
Shipowners will have to pay €35 per tonne of tuna caught and they must have at least one local as a crew-member on board their vessel.
To safeguard the Islands' artisanal fleet, EU vessels will have to operate outside a 30-mile coastal band, carry an observer and pay €400 to the Solomon Islands observer programme.
This agreement is the second of a new approach to joint fishery exploitation and follows the groundbreaking 2002 Kiribati - EU agreement which World Fishing reported on at the time.
EU officials said the West Pacific is the globe's richest tuna grounds producing 50 per cent of the world annual catches of albacore, bigeye, skipjack and yellow-fin tuna.
