Tropical tuna fishing needs to be controlled says a disappointed Pacific Island Tuna Industries Association (PITIA) this week, charging the Western & Central Pacific Fishery Commission (WCPFC) with failing to protect the interests of Pacific Islands tuna industries and leaving the southern albacore longline fishery “open for another year of plundering.”

It was, “An epic failure in the part of management to take into consideration the economic situation of the fishery,” according to PITIA's December newsletter that said the outcome of the tenth annual session of WCPFC “…leaves a rather large gap in a process that is meant to manage the largest tuna fishery in the world and the only viable stock left.”

According to PITIA, “It was extremely disappointing that the more developed richer members of the Commission refuse to make the necessary sacrifice to achieve conservation of value.”

 The industry pointed out that the Convention provides for the protection of SIDS (Small Islands Developing States), their development aspirations and their rights to participate in this fishery. They believed that “the WCPFC since its inception has failed to deliver on this”.

PITIA also pointed out a failure in commitments to conservation “Again this year the Annual Session ends with a measure for the Tuna Fishery that does not address what the science calls for as the much needed reduction in fishing and again leaves the southern Albacore longline fishery open for another year of plundering”.

Control

 PITIA urged Pacific Island governments to take conservation and management into their hands. “Control fishing activities in our waters by controlling access. Control the high seas through our licensing arrangements.

"70-80% of vessels authorised to fish in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean are licensed in a Pacific Island country. This arrangement certainly already affords Pacific Islands with the mandate to manage the fishery."

PITIA is an association made of local tuna industry associations from 14 Pacific Island states (Cook Islands, Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu).

WCPFC is an international organisation with a convention of conserving and managing fish stocks in the Pacific Ocean. Its membership spans all Pacific Island states, the European Union as well as the non-Pacific Islands states of Australia, New Zealand, China, Canada, France, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Chinese Taipei and the United States of America.