A recently concluded tuna tagging program in the Pacific is seen as key to providing the information on the health of tuna stocks in the Western and Central Pacific.
The tuna tagging program, which has been running every year since 2006, is the main source of independent data for the Pacific, and helps scientists and regulators understand the impacts of the tuna fishery in the region, as well as provide information about the ecosystem, Simon Nicol, of the Pacific Community Principle Fisheries Scientist Program, told SeafoodSource.
Nicol said the expedition usually alternates from Central and Western Pacific. This year, the expedition operated in the high seas of the Central Pacific and the Kiribati exclusive economic zone. The expedition also collected samples from Kiribati’s Phoenix Islands Protected Area, which was established in 2008.
In a press statement, SPC said since its 2006 expedition, it now has tagged more than 450,000 tuna, generating “the most comprehensive tag data set for tuna science and management in the world.”
“We do two particularly really important data collections, one is to capture, mark, and release as many tuna as we possibly can. We do this so we know the population of tuna swimming out there, we can monitor how many of those are recaptured in the fishery, and we can verify what the fishing mortality of those stocks and how sustainable the stocks are,” Nicol said.
The second data the expedition collected is to tag a number of fish and release them with an electronic tag which measures the environment around them.
“It’s a bit like our eyes to their lifestyle, it tells us how deep they are swimming and when and where they are swimming,” Nicol said.
From that data, he said they can also extract information on how the tuna are feeding and responding to changing habitats and climate. It will also provide them information on the tuna’s migration.
The expedition needed the cooperation of the fishing industry and the technology sector.
SPC Fisheries Scientist Joe Scutt Phillips said purse seine vessels in the United States fleet have been close collaborators in tagging and ecosystem research by allowing access to their real-time positions of fish aggregating devices (FADs).
Tagging is just half the work, Philipps said. The industry is helping the SPC get the tags back to them by recapturing the tuna.
Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) CEO Ludwig Kumoru said in a statement the expedition was crucial at the time of COVID-19 restrictions.
“Tuna is the one resource available to Pacific nations, providing in some instances more than 50 percent of the National income for some of our countries,” he said. “Understanding the health, distribution, and abundance of the tuna stocks will help in developing the tuna fishery, hence contributing to the overall economy of our countries.”
Kumoru said most of the Pacific countries suffered economic losses due to COVID-19, and revenue from tuna can help support the economies of the countries at this time.
Photo courtesy of SPC
