Excessive Fishing Effort On Yellowfin And Bigeye In Western Pacific ff
24 October 2005
New Caledonia The inaugural meeting of the Scientific Committee of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC - also known as the Tuna Commission) was held in mid-August 2005.
Hosted by the Government of New Caledonia and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), it brought together scientific experts and managers from the entire Pacific region and major fishing countries, under the chairmanship of Dr. Sung Kwon Soh from Korea, to review the available information concerning the tuna stocks of the western and central Pacific Ocean (WCPO).
The recent assessments for both yellowfin and bigeye tuna concluded that current levels of fishing effort and catch in WCPO are likely to be excessive, with exploitation rates exceeding internationally accepted limits. If the current levels of fishing effort continue, it is expected that these tuna stocks will continue to decline to the extent that within five years they will be overfished.
The Scientific Committee (SC), which is a technical advisory body of the Tuna Commission, heard that most of the impact on yellowfin tuna is attributable to the fisheries operating in the equatorial region of WCPO, principally the purse-seine and domestic fisheries of the Philippines and Indonesia. For bigeye, the equatorial longline fishery is responsible for the majority of the impact.
The assessments for skipjack and South Pacific albacore were more optimistic, indicating that current levels of catch are sustainable.
Based on the conclusions of the assessments, SC has developed a number of recommendations for the Commission to consider when it meets at its annual session in December. Perhaps the most important of these recommendations is that the level of fishing effort directed at yellowfin and bigeye be reduced below recent levels.
How the Commission deals with this recommendation and the implementation of any decisions aimed at addressing the concerns about the sustainability of current levels of fishing for yellowfin and bigeye tuna will provide its first major challenge in the management of the tuna resources of the Pacific.
The WCPO tuna fishery represents one of the largest fisheries in the world. Its annual catch of two million metric tons has a value of US$2 billion on global markets. The catch is taken largely by distant water fishing nations licensed to fish in the region and, increasingly, by the domestic fisheries of PacificIsland nations.
For many Pacific countries, tuna represents the only significant economic resource, and the domestic fisheries and/or access fees paid by fishing nations are of crucial economic importance.
