The recent 11th FFA ministerial meeting for Pacific fisheries ended on a high note? in Tuvalu?, with ministers endorsing a decisive range of actions to make Pacific fisheries the rising item on the national, regional and global agenda.
The entire FFA membership of 17-nations have endorsed a new Regional Roadmap for Sustainable Pacific Fisheries, which pitches a list of comprehensive strategies and indicators aimed at achieving success in both the tuna and coastal fisheries, where there is a renewed call for attention and prioritising of both.
Ministers were presented with the 2015 review of the 2010 Future of Pacific Fisheries Report and have taken bold, decisive action towards achieving the fishery they want, with a collective determination on the changes that need to be made in order to achieve that, said FFA Director General James Movick.
Sustainability of the fishery is the leading issue. Ministers have set themselves a goal of agreeing target reference points in the next three years for the four key tuna species in the Pacific fishery, and will step up compliance work and advocacy for Pacific conservation and management measures aimed at reducing bycatch, combating illegal, unlicensed and unregulated fishing, and bringing back bigeye tuna from its current overfished state.
Strategic work aimed at increasing value of tuna rather than volume will focus on eliminating oversupply and targeting higher value products and markets.
On the employment front, the plan is to create 18,000 new jobs in the tuna industry by 2025. Most of that increase is expected to be driven by processing industries in Melanesia, but the report notes opportunities for vessel crew, observers and fisheries management staff, and more importantly for regional cooperation so that countries can develop mutually beneficial arrangements between themselves to leverage on their collective comparative advantages. Issues such as regional processing hubs and labour mobility will play a strong role in this.
Ministers noted with concern the ability of coastal fisheries to meet regional food security needs in the region as populations grow. The approved roadmap includes actions to reform the management and development of coastal fisheries to better meet community protein requirements. It also sets out a number of avenues for members to increase the contribution of tuna fisheries to local food security.
Fisheries Ministers have also endorsed a dynamic new report-card system aimed at boosting engagement and providing a self-monitoring check for Pacific countries on the status of the Pacific fishery. They have agreed to step up engagement to restore confidence in the effectiveness of the WCPFC process.
In addition, they have tasked the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) to set up a new regional Competent Authority’ unit to work with national authorities to help ensure food safety standards are met when preparing tuna for export to the world market.
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