Tonga's fishing industry remains in a sad state with only one commercial tuna fishing boat in operation in what should be one of its most dynamic economic sectors.

"Very sad", was how Semisi Fakahau, a fisheries consultant described the status of Tonga's fishing industry after years of struggling to establish a Fisheries Industry.

He was commenting yesterday to Matangi Tonga on a proposal he has made to government to revive the industry by introducing charter boats for local fishermen, along with a Fisheries Development Fund for Tonga.

Exports

Semisi pointed out that Tonga's neighbour Samoa with the smallest Exclusive Economic Zone EEZ in the Pacific region has 17 locally registered commercial fishing boats, and fish is Samoa's biggest export product.

Fiji has more than 100 fishing boats, with 76 locally registered commercial fishing boats, and other foreign fishing vessels that were issued with Fijian fishing licenses.

Semisi, who used to work for Tonga's Ministry of Fisheries, before he became a roaming fisheries consultant, believed that our neighbouring islands are very serious about developing their fisheries industries, while in Tonga "we tend to just talk about it too much". 

The cost of fuel and electricity is also higher in Tonga in comparison with its neighboring countries.

Semisi believed that Tonga's struggle to develop its fishing industry was made more difficult after the government downgraded fisheries from its previous ministry status to a government department.

He said that after government weakened the status of fisheries, aid donors were not eager to offer assistance when they realized that Tonga's interest was elsewhere but fisheries.

Fisheries Fund

Semisi said that he has recommended that government take steps to revive the industry.

He believed that Tonga's real problem is that local fishing companies could not afford to either buy new fishing boats or to up-grade their fishing boats, which are tied up at the Faua Wharf in Nuku'alofa.

He has proposed the establishment of a Fisheries Development Fund with the Tonga Development Bank, with a favourable lending policy, low interest rates and longer repayment periods.

He suggested that the Fund might be initially capitalized with $1 million from the amount that the United States government pays Tonga annually to enable US commercial fishing boats to fish in Tonga's territorial waters.

Charter boats

The other proposal was for local fishing entities to charter tuna fishing boats.

Semisi said he was part of a Tongan delegation to China recently and the proposal to supply the charter boats was presented to the Chinese, but so far there had been no response from the Chinese.

Semisi said that the idea of chartering fishing boats was new to Tonga but it had been practiced throughout the region for a number of years. The advantage is that a Tongan company could charter tuna fishing boats to fish in Tonga's waters. Tonga then would not have to issue licenses to foreign fishing boats, a practice that had proved to be unprofitable. The local fishing companies with their charter tuna fishing boats would then be able to rebuild Tonga's fishing industries.

Semisi believed that if the Fisheries Development Fund and the proposal to charter tuna fishing boats from China would be implemented, it would be a small step toward reviving Tonga's dying fishing industry.

At the moment there is only one Tongan registered tuna commercial fishing boat and 22 foreign fishing boats, which are fishing in Tonga's 660,305 square KMs EEZ.

Tuna stocks

With regards to the concern over a depleting tuna stock in the Pacific Ocean, and a proposal to restrict the number of fishing licenses, which are issued to foreign fishing boats, Semisi said that over-fishing in the Tongan territorial waters was not an issue here, but it was definitely a matter of great concern in the Western Pacific region.

He said that the current push by the Tuna Industry in the Pacific Islands countries to put a restriction on the number of fishing licenses that are issued to foreign fishing boats, had been opposed by the Tuna Commission (WCPFC), whose members included foreign countries with fishing fleets in the region, such as Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan.