By Finau Fonua

Tuna longline fishing countries have agreed to limit Tuna catches in the Western and Central Pacific, according to the Western & Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), after a meeting earlier this month in Samoa.

Members of the WCPFC include all Pacific Island countries and territories (including Tonga) as well as some of the world’s largest Tuna consumers such as China, Japan and the United States.

The recently adopted Conservation and Management Measures from the eleventh regular session of WCPFC, held in Apia, on December 5  will become binding from 3 February 2015 (60 days after the date of their adoption).

The agreed decisions are listed in a preamble known as the “Conservation and Management Measure 2014”, which sets out sixty-two paragraphs detailing conservation measures and responsibilities.

The objective of the measures it stated, is to ensure that “…Bigeye, Yellowfin and Skipjack tuna stocks are, at a minimum, maintained at levels capable of producing their maximum sustainable yield as qualified by relevant environmental and economic factors, including the special requirements of members”.

Measures to limit tuna catches included:

“CCMs [countries and territories in the WCPFC] agree to take measures not to increase catches by their longline vessels of yellowfin tuna.”

“Other than SIDS [Small Island developing states] and Indonesia10, CCMs shall not increase the number of their longline vessels, with freezing capacity targeting bigeye tuna above the current level.”

“Other than SIDS and Indonesia, CCMs shall not increase the number of their ice-chilled longline vessels targeting bigeye tuna and landing exclusively fresh fish, above the current level or above the current number of licenses under established limited entry programmes.”

“CCMs and the Commission shall promote and encourage research to identify ways for vessels to avoid the capture bigeye and Yellowfin tuna…”

Catch limits were also set for bigeye tuna in 2014, the six specified countries were China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States.

Tonnes

The preamble also recalled that since 1999 a number of resolutions and Conservation and Management Measures (CMMs) were developed to mitigate the overfishing of bigeye and yellowfin tuna and to limit the growth of fishing capacity in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean and that these measures had been unsuccessful in either restricting the apparent growth of fishing capacity or in reducing the fishing mortality of bigeye or juvenile yellowfin tuna.