PNA wants scheme extended to long-line fleet

Transcript

The Parties to the Nauru Agreement are hoping a new scheme will be in place next year to control long-line tuna fishing in the region.

The Pacific fishing agency hopes the extension of its vessel day scheme to include long-line fishing vessels will generate more revenue for member nations as well as control tuna harvesting in the region.

The scheme currently focuses on purse-seine vessels which buy days to fish in PNA waters.

The PNA's chief Transform Aqorau told Philippa Tolley the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru and Solomon Islands have signed up to the new initiative and he expects the Marshall islands to sign soon.

TRANSFORM AQORAU: It's another journey for the PNA and it will be a long five to 10 year process for them to really claw and implement and get it into full effect but the whole idea is strategic. One is you want to start applying zone based measures to this long-line fishery and bring it under control and you want to see the rights in the long-line fishery being replaced by those who really don't have an interest in it such as the Taiwanese and the Koreans. And the idea is to lead the long term, to transfer those rights to Pacific Island countries and maybe to Japan and the Hawaiian long-line fleet. That's where the strategic, I guess ultimate objective of the reshaping, or what I call the reshaping of this long-line fishery. And by doing that it will be easy for us to then start controlling what's happening with the long-line fleet, particularly the long-line big eye tuna fleet. I think there'll be better control, better monitoring, as it is right now, you've got these Taiwanese, Korean boats, to some extent Chinese boats, we want to see them phased out of the fisheries and just be replaced by domestic Pacific Island operators plus the Japanese and the Americans. So with the long-line fleet, vessel day scheme, once it comes into force, from an operational perspective as the administrator, everything is ready for those countries that have signed they will probably initially be monitoring the days that long-line vessels set and maybe eventually as we tighten and improve things then they will probably start charging a day.  

PHILIPPA TOLLEY: So you haven't got everybody signed up at the moment, what are the reservations from those that haven't signed?

TA: In the case of Papua New Guinea they've got a wholly domesticated long-line and they will eventually I think, sign. Kiribati also has some issues with the long-line and it's up to them. What we said is unlike the purse seine vessel day scheme, each country is free to join up and the fact that not all the PNA countries need to join up for the long-line vessel day scheme to enter into force, so the fact that you only have five applying it, allows it to be implemented as soon as possible and I think eventually other countries will have to come on board because as they see the value of the fishery being increased as a result of these rights and the limits plus the need to conserve big eye tuna, there's no other alternative but to move to zone based fishery management. I think they will eventually come on board.   

The PNA has eight members - Palau, FSM, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Papua New Guinea and Tuvalu.