Pacific fisheries to get higher fees in US deal for 2016 [1]
Monday, August 10, 2015 - 19:28. Updated on Wednesday, December 9, 2015 - 10:12.
A one-year transitional arrangement for United States vessels for 2016, agreed to on 5 August this year is expected to bring greater benefits to all Pacific Islands.
Dr Transform Aqorau, CEO of Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA), said the one-year deal was sealed after a negotiating session in Australia confirming the value of the PNA’s vessel day scheme (VDS) for managing the skipjack tuna fishery in the western and central Pacific ocean.
The islands will receive higher fees for fewer fishing days than in the current agreement for 2015.
He said a positive development reflecting the value of rights based fisheries management for the Pacific Islands, the deal for one-year however underscores the increasing difficulties in getting agreement on longer term access for U.S vessels as they enjoyed, until PNA introduced the VDS.
PNA had set US$8,000 as the minimum fee for VDS days for 2015 and 2016 while capping the number of fishing days for 2015 and 2016 at fewer than 45,000. Many fishing nations in 2015 are paying significantly more than this benchmark price to secure fishing days for their fleets.
The eight PNA members including the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua new Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu will receive US$12,600 per finishing day, a 34 percent increase over the US$9,380 currently paid by the U.S purse seine fleet.
The total package including both U.S industry payments and the US government fisheries subsidy comes to US$89,271,350 for 2016.
The U.S tuna industry will pay US$68,271,350 and the U.S government will provide a subsidy of US$21 million. Fishing day payments aside, each of the Pacific Islands involved in the treaty will receive an equal share payment of US$680,397.
“This is a deal that is good for Pacific Island people and reflects the value of access to the world’s last remaining healthy tuna resources,” said Dr Aqorau. “It's an excellent deal for PNA and non PNA nations alike, it shows how VDS has worked and how Pacific islands have transformed the fishery."
The U.S had also agreed not to fish in two high seas pockets located in the PNA region.
In addition, the agreement for this year will for the first time see Cook Islands receive significant payments under VDS and the U.S fleet will begin exploratory fishing opportunities in the exclusive economic zones of five South Pacific nations.
Fee
PNA has enforced the VDS for the purse seine industry for over five-years, setting a minimum fishing day fee now at US$8,000. Since 2010 revenue from the VDS to the eight PNA members has increased more than five-fold from US$64 million in 2010 to an estimated US$350 million this year.
Since the access and financial terms of the Treaty lapsed in June 2013, the U.S and Pacific Islands have agreed o a series of one year or 18 month interim arrangements to maintain the treaty which gives U.S flagged vessels access to the region for fishing while negotiating extension to the Treaty.
Although there continues to be challenges issues such as the US desire for more fishing days in the waters of particular countries and a request for exemption for a few large purse seiners from the requirement that a fishing day be defined as 1.5 days for vessels with significantly increased capacity and sophistication, these are just issues to be worked on in the future, said Dr Aqorau.
Parties to the Nauru Agreement are eight Pacific Islands countries that control the world’s largest sustainable tuna purse seine fishery supplying 50 percent of the world’s skipjack tuna.