The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC)’s annual meeting finished at the end of December, with agreements on a range of new conservation and control measures.
These included measure on monitoring and control, aiming to make a substantial contribution to conserving the region’s fish stocks.
A proposal to combat illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing was made and, in the future, WCPFC will formally blacklist IUU vessels.
A scheme has also been adopted allowing non-flag state inspectors to board and inspect any vessel flagged to a contracting party fishing in the convention area.
A commitment has also been made to implement a centralised satellite-based vessel monitoring system (VMS).
A number of conservation measures were also agreed, including:
• A proposal to limit fishing effort on swordfish to 2005 levels through 2007 and 2008
• Technical measures to reduce by-catch, particularly of seabirds, in the longline fisheries
• To regulate shark fisheries in line with the current practice of other tuna RFMOs
