Overfishing of bigeye tuna continues in the western and central Pacific tuna fishery, the world’s biggest, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) said on Sunday.
The SPC made the assessment in a report released at the first plenary session of the third African Caribbean Pacific fisheries meeting currently underway in Fiji’s western tourist town of Nadi.
Though the species is not at risk of extinction, and is never likely to be, bigeye fishing effort needs to be reduced by at least 32 percent from the average levels for 20062009 to ensure long-term sustainability, the assessment report said.
The 2010 catch for all four species is estimated at 2.42 million tons, the second highest annual catch on record, representing 83 percent of the total Pacific Ocean catch and 60 percent of the global tuna catch.
“Overall, the fishery is in the best shape of all the tuna fisheries in the world,” said John Hampton, manager of the SPC Oceanic Fisheries Program.
“On a scale of 110, we estimate it as 67, a green traffic light tinged with orange. But there has been an upward trend in total tuna catch for many years, mainly due to increases in purse- seine fishery catches, which accounted for 75 percent of the 2010 catch.”
The purse-seine fisheries and domestic surface fisheries of the Philippines and Indonesia take large numbers of small bigeye, says the report, recommending that the yellowfin catch in the western equatorial Pacific be limited to around current levels and that limits on skipjack fishing be considered.
While opening the first plenary session of the third ACP fisheries meeting, Fijian Ministry of Fisheries’ Permanent Secretary Inoke Wainiqolo said Illegal fishing is a growing trend and is a serious concern in the world of fisheries and forests, which undermines efforts to conserve and manage fish stocks.
Fiji has developed a National Plan of Action (NPOA), with the assistance of United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization ( FAO), on IUU fishing based on the provisions of the International Plan of Action.
2012 by The Global Times