PNG Tuna Fleet Now Approx. 200 Vessels ff

Conserving and regulating yellowfin and bigeye tuna will be a topic of discussion when the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries executive director visits Papua New Guinea this week. PNG has now about 200 tuna vessels operating in its waters.

Western and Central Pacific Fisheries executive director Andrew Wright said in a statement that there were many reasons for selecting PNG as the first country to visit.

He said while catches were at historically high levels, there were mounting concerns about the capacity to sustain the current levels of harvest in the long term.

“There is particular concern that two types of tuna — yellowfin and bigeye tuna — will suffer if fishing is allowed to expand further,” he said.

He said conserving those tuna and regulating fishing effort for those resources would be one of the topics for discussion with PNG Government officials and the industry during his visit.

Mr. Wright said PNG was a major player with 2.4 million square kilometers of marine area. “It has an expanding fleet of approximately 200 tuna fishing vessels with an annual catch that has ranged between 250,000 and 310,000 tons over the last few years and increasing shore-side investment,” he said.