The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) has established the first-ever set of labor standards by a tuna regional fishery management organization (RFMO) and created a new set of interim standards for electronic monitoring.
However, once again it failed to take action on regulating at-sea transshipment.
The WCPFC's jurisdiction covers more than half of the world’s tuna catch and includes 26 member countries. Ahead of its 21st annual meeting, NGOs were calling on the commission to increase its electronic monitoring requirements and tighten its transshipment standards in a bid to enhance the sustainability of the fishery.
International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) Vice President of Policy and Research Holly Koehler told SeafoodSource that the overall feeling from the meeting was one of progress in terms of sustainability in the fisheries.
“There were a number of really good outcomes from the meeting. There were a couple of things that we were really looking forward to as a win that we have been advocating for for some time,” Koehler said.
Chief among those outcomes was the adoption of interim electronic monitoring standards, which took over 10 years of back and forth to establish.
“The WCPFC has been working on this for a number of years now, and they’re the last tuna RFMO to adopt these interim standards,” Koehler said.
Those standards include relatively basic guidelines like angles of camera and the structures needed to implement electronic monitoring, which should enhance the data acquired by the WCPFC. Currently, 100 percent of purse-seine fishing vessels require human observer coverage, but just 5 percent of longline vessels require coverage – leaving gaps in observation and the data that comes from it.
“Now, the WCPFC, like other RFMOs, enters the phase of implementation,” Koehler said. “Now comes the phase where these vessels begin to implement it under the structure and providing the data in line with the standards.”
Better observation is a linchpin to other important metrics for RFMOs, Koehler said. Conservation measures, catch levels, and enforcement are only as effective as the data that is available.
“To provide the basis for those, you need good data and multiple streams of data,” she said.
The WCPFC also made progress on management procedures and harvest control rules on multiple species.
Harvest strategies, harvest control rules, and management procedures establish set agreements across RFMO member states that govern how to manage the total allowable catch of a fishery in a way that streamlines the process and sets it directly against scientific measures.
Koehler said WCPFC is making progress, but because of the multi-species nature of some of its fisheries, it has been difficult to iron out the details. There’s also additional education needed for the member states which also need to understand the way the new standards are adopted.
The WCPFC also adopted crew labor standards – a first for any tuna RFMO – which was celebrated by NOAA Fisheries.
"The United States is extremely pleased with the adoption of the first binding measure at a regional fisheries management organization to protect crew members,” NOAA Fisheries Office of International Affairs, Trade, and Commerce Director Alexa Cole said. “This groundbreaking step paves the way for greater global protection of crew members aboard fishing vessels around the world.”
NOAA Fisheries said the U.S. has prioritized action related to crew welfare across RFMOs and has worked with other countries to advocate at the WCPFC.
“After nearly four years of work co-chaired by New Zealand and Indonesia, the commission adopted the first-ever binding conservation and management measure on crew labor standards,” NOAA Fisheries said. “The new labor standards measure requires the owners and operators of fishing vessels in the convention area to meet certain standards for working conditions. They must also take specific steps in the event a crew member is missing, falls overboard, is mistreated, or dies.”
While the WCPFC made progress in a number of areas, it continued to fail in others, Koehler said. The RFMO once again failed to take any steps to realign its regulations on at-sea transshipment, despite it forming a working group in 2019 to tackle the topic.
According to Koehler, WCPFC has had the same set of measures on transshipment since 2009.
“We’ve got a number of new standards that are out there, new bars that really should be being met,” Koehler said.
The FAO established new voluntary guidelines on transshipment regulation in 2023, and with the latest failure, the WCPFC is now over a decade behind.
“Making changes to align with those guidelines are among the things that WCPFC really needs to be doing, and they’re not making that kind of progress,” Koehler said.
