The development of Tonga's tuna fishing industry has failed miserably despite tireless efforts made by the Forum Fisheries Agency to support its development in Tonga over the past years, Hon Semisi Fakahau, Tonga’s Minister of Agriculture, Food, Forests and Fisheries, said in Tuvalu this week.

During the Minister's country report to the Forum Fisheries Agency’s (FFA) 11^th Fisheries Ministerial Meeting he said that discussions would address two important issues, the positive side of things regarding the success in sustainable development of tuna fisheries in FFA member countries; and the negative side of things like the overfishing of bigeye tuna and failure in the development of tuna fisheries.

“In this particular case, I refer to the situation in Tonga where the development of the domestic tuna fishing industry has failed miserably, despite tireless efforts made by FFA to support the development of Tonga’s domestic tuna fishing industry in the past years.”C

Coastal fisheries will be discussed in the meeting in Tuvalu that runs from 30 June to 1 July.

Hon. Fakahua added that the Government of Tonga in collaboration with the IUCN Head Office in Suva will be hosting a Regional Beche de Mer Summit in September this year.

He thanked the Director-General and staff of FFA for the hard and excellent work they have done in the past 12 months, providing services that benefited FFA member countries including Tonga.

This is the first time he had represented Tonga at the Ministerial Forum Fisheries since his appointment as Minister.