All countries involved in fishing for dwindling Bigeye tuna stocks in the Pacific Ocean needed to compromise at a major meeting on fisheries last week, but that failed to happen according to a global environmental group.
Amanda Nickson of the Pew Charitable Trusts attended the week long session of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission in Apia and says the lack of agreement was phenomenally disappointing.
She says the countries involved including Pacific island countries and the distant water fishing nations like China and Japan had a whole year to ensure they came to the table this year ready to put in place measures to end overfishing.
"It leaves you to wonder how long they're going to wait before they put in place appropriate management action. Are we looking at a situation where they're going to let these other fish stocks get to a severely depeleted situation before they take action? Overall it was very disappointing."
