Source: Nauru Fisheries and Marine Resources Authority
The EEZ of the PNA member nation Nauru, has a higher density of tuna fishing, in terms of number of purse-seine sets per square mile of EEZ than any other Pacific Island EEZ. Although the fishing is always good in Nauru, there are however variations. These variations are not seasonal, but are linked to the El Nino/La Nina phenomenon. A recent positive change in this pattern has last week brought many tuna seiners rushing into their waters.
As Nauru Fisheries and Marine Resources Authority (NFMRA) Chief Executive Officer, mr. Charleston Deiye explains, “with a La Nina event under way for the past few months, most of the purse-seiners have been operating further west, in Papua New Guinea and the southern part of the Federated States of Micronesia. In fact if this had continued we might have made it through to the end of the year with the few Nauru fishing days we had remaining. However, last week a lot of boats suddenly came back to Nauru, and our remaining days were quickly used up. We had to close the door at short noticeâ€.
The oceanographic event which has pushed the purse seiners westward during the last two months has also apparently had an effect on the supply of purse-seine fish to Pacific Island processing plants towards the east of the region.
“Some are blaming the 3-month (July-September) FAD closure for reducing the supply of fish to certain processing plants recently,†said Mr. Deiye, “but our data – for Nauru waters at least – shows that average skipjack catch rates during the FAD closure in 2010 were the same as catch rates outside the FAD closure, and yellowfin catch rates were even higher. Of course this may have just been because the FAD closure in 2010 coincided with a period of very good fishing in Nauru waters. We’re still waiting on the analysis for 2011.â€