Tuvalu has become the latest Parties to Naura Agreement (PNA) member nation to implement the Vessel Day Scheme for its longline fishing industry.
After signing on to the scheme at the PNA meeting in Bali, Tuvalu is the eighth of the nine member bloc of fishing nations to have implemented the scheme.
Pita Elisala, Tuvalu’s natural resources minister, said: “Tuvalu recognises the importance of signing up for the longline Vessel Day Scheme as we have reaped the benefits of the VDS scheme with our purse seiners.”
The longline VDS started on 1 January this year in the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru Palau and Solomon Islands.
“This is a testimony that the Vessel Day Scheme is building strength and confidence among the membership,” said Eugene Pangelinan, PNA chairperson.
He continued: “We are committed to get our remaining member Kiribati to join us. We hope that fishing nations will realise that they must respect our measures and cooperate with us as this is the future of managing the longline fishery in our waters.”
Dr Transform Aqorau, PNA’s CEO, said that implementing a VDS for the longline industry was a challenge but long overdue. The response from PNA member nations like Tuvalu was a vote of confidence in the scheme.
Mr Aqorau added: “PNA member nations will benefit from the effective use of the VDS for managing the purse seine skipjack fishery, which has pushed revenue up from US$60m to US$350m in five years.”
“The longline industry is currently at the point where purse seiners were 20 years ago – largely unmanaged and fishing unsustainably with woefully low revenue returns to the islands.”
He concluded that it is going to take time to implement the VDS but PNA has taken the steps to do the necessary groundwork through a series of workshops in the last year.
