2 Jul 2004

Greenpeace look at protecting fish in Pacific

10:24 am on 2 July 2004

With more than 70 percent of the world's fisheries either at their limit or already overfished, the Pacific Island region is considered one of the healthiest fisheries left.

Greenpeace's Oceanographer in Fiji, Pio Manoa, says because of this, there is a huge interest in the region, and it's shown by an increase in the numbers of large scale fishing operations.

"We are quite concerned that the way things are going, we will definitely have issues with some of our fish stocks - we're already seei ng problems with bigger tuna, and yellowfin. The way things are going we can definitely see trouble up ahead."

Pio Manoa says their message about protecting fish stocks will be strengthened with the establishment of the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission.

He says when this comes into force, they hope to have a regional conservation management regime in place that'll not only cover national waters, but the high seas.