Closing an additional 4.5 million square miles of high seas in the central and western Pacific to purse-seine tuna vessels was among the declarations made at this week's inaugural Presidential Summit of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) in Koror, Palau.
The PNA — which includes leaders from Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu — aims to improve the region's tuna fisheries through sustainable management and innovation.
Among the declarations the PNA reached were:
• to conserve and restore tuna stocks while maximizing economic returns and exploring arrangements to control output and limit effort
• to adopt a vessel day scheme (VDS) whereby vessel owners can purchase and trade days fishing at sea; the VDS reduces tuna catches and increases the return rate to PNA members through access fees
• and to seek certification of skipjack tuna caught by purse-seine vessels in PNA waters
"As long as it remains affordable, and mums and dads in Europe and the United States can make a quick lunch pack out of tuna, we will always have a readily available market for tuna," said PNA Director Dr. Transform Aqorau at the Presidential Summit.
"We are one of the players in this global industry; 25 percent of the global tuna catch is caught in our waters," added Aqorau. "We are therefore in a powerful position to influence and shape the global tuna market in ways that can improve the social and economic well beings of our people, if we want to, and have the courage to take the difficult decisions that will change the fishery. I am pleased with the direction of the Presidents today and look forward to taking PNA initiatives such as the Vessel Day Scheme, the high seas closures and proceeding with new initiatives such as seeking Marine Stewardship Council certification which increase the value of our tuna."
The MSC applauded the PNA's move.
"Today's announcement is a truly historic one, as it brings us one step further towards providing certified sustainable choices for all key commercial fish species," said MSC CEO Rupert Howes. "If the assessment process finds the fishery meets the MSC standard, a significant portion of the skipjack tuna caught by PNA states will be eligible to bear the MSC ecolabel. This will be an important milestone towards satisfying some of the still largely unfulfilled demand for credible, certified sustainable tuna in Europe and North America.
"I am delighted the PNA states — eight countries with a long history of cooperation to jointly manage one of the world's healthiest and most abundant tuna resources — have chosen MSC certification to demonstrate their fisheries resources are managed sustainably for this and future generations," said Howes.
February 24, 2010
