Pacific Island nations are calling on global fishing powers to join them in taking decisive action to protect one of the world’s few remaining unmanaged tuna stocks.
A meeting of the 11 nations that are party to the Tokelau arrangement has called for a 40 per cent cut the catch of southern albacore tuna, and they have the backing of the 17 nations of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency.
As Jemima Garrett reports, the call comes after scientists discovered an alarming decline in stocks.
GARRETT: Southern albacore tuna migrates across some of the most remote stretches of the Pacific from Queensland to the Cook Islands.
Compared to other species it was thought to be bullet-proof.
Now it is down to 40 per cent of its pre-fishing levels.
Graham Pilling, one of the scientists who discovered the alarming fall in numbers, says fishing effort needs to be cut.
PILLING: We have had a look to see what would happen if the current levels of effort remain within the fishery and the stock would carry on falling and catch rates would carry on falling as well.
GARRETT: In the past decade the fleet chasing southern albacore has grown dramatically, with large numbers of Chinese boats entering the fishery for the first time.
The new stock data, which comes from the region’s peak science organisation, has sent a chill across the Pacific.
The 11 nations which own the fishery, backed by the 17-nation of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, have decided to take on the distant water fleets by recommending a stock target – or reference point – of 45 per cent of unfished stocks.
Wez Norris is acting Director-General of the Forum fisheries Agency.
NORRIS: The target reference point that has been recommended is going to require a cut in the order of 40 per cent of the catch in the fishery in order to achieve it. Now obviously for a group of developing states who are reliant on these fisheries and the revenue they produce that is a very confronting prospect. So it is going to take a lot of time, and a lot of effort and sensitivity within the WCPFC to work out exactly how these cuts are going to be achieved. And in particular the nasty business of who has to bear the brunt of the conservation action.
GARRETT: The WCPFC is the management body that brings the Pacific and fishing powers from Europe, Asia and North America together to decide on fishing rules.
Pacific nations can impose rules in their own 200-mile exclusive economic zones but need agreement of the fishing powers to extend the regime into international waters.
Stan Crothers fisheries spokesperson for Tokelau says action is urgent.
CROTHERS: Right now, right around the Pacific you see boats tied up. These countries are already facing very serious pain because of the overfishing of this particular fishery. It is almost a situation where there are no real alternatives. If they carry on the same as they have been doing, essentially the domestic fleets of all of these countries will be wiped out within 5 years.
GARRETT: A cut of 40 per cent of fishing effort is an ambitious target.
In the past the distant water fishing nations have been unwilling to act.
Wez Norris says all nations will have to cut catches if the fishery is to be economically viable.
NORRIS: I think there is an appreciation that given the magnitude of the reductions we are talking about there is going to have to be mutual effort. No-one is going to be immune from the management measures that are going to be taken for the fishery. It is just a matter of working out ways we can do this that are fair and equitable and respects the principles of the WCPFC convention that protect small island developing states.
GARRETT: Success in negotiations with the fishing powers relies on the Pacific countries solidarity.
2015 ABC