The two-year ban on purse-seine tuna fishing in the Pacific Ocean has been extended for another three months following the deferment until March of last month’s scheduled annual meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), a tuna industry leader here said.
Marfenio Tan, director of the Socsksargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries Inc. (SFFAII), said the eighth regular session of the Commission for the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (or WCPFC8) was moved to 26 to 30 March in Guam from its 5 to 9 December 2011 schedule in Koror, Palau.
He said the postponement of the meeting extended for another three months the resolution of the purse seine fishing ban in pockets of the Pacific Ocean that practically slowed down the tuna fishing industry here in the last two years.
