Source: Partial text is taken from ISSF Press Release
As processors, retailers and consumers continue to evaluate the sustainability of fishing methods, the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) has published a new technical FFA resource paper on pole and line caught tuna. The ‘Promotion of Pole-and-Line Tuna Fishing in the Pacific Islands: Emerging Issues and Lessons Learned’ examines “issues associated with promoting pole-and-line fishing and attempts to derive lessons from experience that may guide future development efforts.â€
The report had been funded by the Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), and the ISSF has provided funding for the travel associated with the report.
The goal of the study was to determine what has been achieved in the promotion of pole-and-line fishing on tuna, and where areas of opportunity lie for Pacific island nations. It also aimed to determine what the FFA’s role should be in any future pole-and-line promotion activities.
Among the study’s findings were:
• The major pole-and-line producers are Japan (about 125,000 tons of skipjack and yellowfin annually), Indonesia (100,000 tons), and the Maldives (100,000 tons). The world’s production is about 400,000 tons annually, some of which is for domestic consumption. There are between 100,000 and 150,000 tons of pole-and-line caught skipjack and yellowfin on the international market.
• In the Pacific Islands the availability of bait, rather than tuna, has often been the resource factor limiting expansion of a pole-and-line tuna fishery. The main lessons from extensive baitfish work in the late 1970s is that the large islands in the west of the Pacific Island region have the best potential for bait-fisheries for pole-and-line fishing. Small islands in the east and atolls have the least potential.
• Information from a company in the Solomon Islands shows high production costs and low productivity of pole-and-line fishing relative to that of purse seining. Historical information from pole-and-line fishing in PNG shows that the real price of tuna today is less than half the price of what it was during the height of the fishery 30 years ago.
• The main lesson appears to be that the pole-and-line development or revitalization in the region is a very difficult task and certainly not as easy as stated in some of the NGO promotional literature. Experience from other regions seems to indicate that the Pacific Islands is not the only region struggling to succeed in pole-and-line promotion.
The report was written by consultant Bob Gillett, who is director of Gillett, Preston and Associates has been involved in marine resources development in the Pacific islands for the past four decades. Mr. Gillett has authored over 250 publications, books, and technical reports on fisheries and tuna.
The report at the beginning specifically mentions a disclaimer that the content (including the analysis) are solely the responsibility of the consultant and do not necessarily reflect the position or thinking of the FFA secretariat or its members.