FFA Director General Tanielu Su’a said this when he tabled his 2007 Annual Report.
Su’a urged the committee to find ways to address the gaps.
“There are considerable gaps in our regional fisheries management strategy and this is something that the Committee must work on in the coming years,” Director General Su’a told the meeting.
According to a press statement, it has become obvious that in the past years there have been differences in the approaches to fisheries in the region.
“These differences, he said, have been brought about largely as a result of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission [WCPF] Commission,” he said.
“For instance the adoption by the WCFP Commission of 2005-01 whereby the purse seine fishery will be managed through a Vessel Day Scheme has firmly entrenched the management of the purse seine fishery in the control of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement [PNA],” he said.
He added these arrangements must not be taken for granted.
“… the onus is on FFA Members to ensure that the measures adopted by the Commission and the responsibilities which they have been given are discharged effectively and responsibly,” he said.
“The exponential growth in the demand for the services of the Agency arising from the increasing number of meetings spawned by, amongst other things, the establishment of the Commission for the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific [WCPF Commission] has imposed additional burden and responsibilities on both the Agency and Secretariat and Member Countries,” he said.
The Director General also highlighted major challenges faced by the Agency and Member Countries, saying fisheries management and conservation continue to become more complex.
He said that the members and secretariat must address these challenges by building the capacity of FFA member.
He was confident that through the leadership of the Committee, “the Agency would be able to meet the challenges, which include ongoing concerns for the status of stocks of yellowfin and bigeye tuna in the region”.
