The Parties to the Nauru Agreement are warning fishing companies who refuse to work with them that they'll lose access to lucrative Pacific tuna fisheries.
In an address to this year's Pacific Tuna Forum in Palau, the PNA's director Dr Transform Aqorau emphasised that only those supporting both the economies of PNA countries and tuna conservation will be able to fish in PNA waters.
The eight signatories to the agreement, which governs the management of their fisheries, are Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands.
The PNA's Anouk Ride says the message to fishing companies is shape up or ship out.
"I should also point out that there are some kind of practical proposals to facilitate this approach. So for example the PNA is looking at trying to establish more processing, whether it's preparation of loins for exports or whether it's canning in so then we can have more jobs and more economic benefits in the region."
The PNA's Anouk Ride.
