PNG Starts Implementation Of “Vessel Fishing Day” Scheme For Tuna ff

The Papua New Guinea National Fisheries Authority (NFA) will carry out new initiatives this year to further develop the tuna sector.

Fisheries Minister Ben Semri said last Friday there were ongoing development initiatives underway.

“I recognize that one of the key strengths of the NFA is its ability to identify challenges in the fisheries sector and to reposition itself so as to be responsive and attentive to its key stakeholders,” he said.

Major changes had already been made in the manner the “purse seine” tuna fishery is managed in the region from managing vessel capacity or vessel numbers to the trial implementation of the vessel day scheme.

“In effect this would mean that PNG will sell fishing days or fishing effort to purse seine vessels that fish in PNG waters.”

PNG has a total allocation of around 7,900 days which would be sold to all purse seine vessels that fish in PNG waters.

“PNG is a leader in tuna fishery management. We have an active national tuna management plan, a party to the Palau arrangement which manages purse seine tuna fishing in the region and a fish aggregating device management policy.”

“Our enforcement programmes are also second to none, which can be seen in the ongoing arrangement between NFA and the PNG Defense Force for K1 million for 10 surveillance trips per year,” Mr. Semri said.

Since 2002, a total of 35 patrols have been made.

The success of this programme was in apprehending illegal fishing vessels in NFA generating a total of K5.6 million from prosecution of illegal vessels.

Last year, NFA purchased two small crafts to be based in Vanimo and Daru. This year, it plans to purchase another two slightly bigger patrol crafts to join the other two vessels.

In the terms of fish management, more stock assessments and surveys will be carried out.

For tuna in particular, the tagging programme which commenced last year in partnership with the Secretariat of the Pacific community will continue as well as assessment on the impact of fishing around aggregating devices. The tagging project will attempt to determine what the many different parameters of the three different tuna species (skipjack, yellowfin, and bigeye) in PNG waters including, their movement patterns, some aspects of their biology and feeding requirements.

A similar tagging study will be carried out in other Pacific Island countries based on the findings of the PNG study.

This project is funded through AusAID and New Zealand Aid.

PNG through the NFA has contributed K700,000 to the project.