of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement [PNA] later this week.
The PNA officials have decided to include the measure at the meeting being held here in Palau.
The theme of the FFC’s 67th meeting is “Ensure Sustainable Management of Fisheries Resources through Regional Unity.”
Another issue that will be considering during the meeting was a recommendation that foreign fishing boat keep their full catches regardless whether or not it is tuna stocks.
Presently, non-tuna stocks are thrown overboard, allowing the fishing boats to spend more time at sea.
Another recommendation is the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs) will be prohibited for three months each year.
It also added that each fishing boat would also be required to carry an observer onboard.
The ministers will also consider a recommendation that pockets of high seas, largely regarded as international waters at present, will be closed to fishing activities by foreign fishing boats. The closure will be a condition of licensing.
There are four pockets of high seas in the Pacific. The first is north of Papua New Guinea and its boundary is jointly shared by FSM and Palau. The boundary of the second area, the largest of the four, is shared by PNG, Nauru, Marshall Islands, FSM, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Solomon Islands.
The boundary of the third area is jointly shared by Vanuatu, Fiji and Solomon Islands. The fourth which is located to the east of the Pacific is shared by the Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Kiribati.
According to officials, banning the FADs, is a conservation measure designed in discouraging harvesting of highly migratory species.
Parties to the Nauru Agreement – Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu – say they have decided to “apply these measures to their EEZs as a demonstration of their desire to seek additional conservation and management measures to address the ongoing concerns about the continuing decline in bigeye and yellowfin stocks”.
Most of the tuna stocks from the Pacific, valued at USD3 billion a year, come from the waters of PNA Members.
In a statement the PNA members said: “The PNA have taken the proposal developed by FFA Members at last year’s Management Options Workshop and have turned it into a set of measures that will be applied to the EEZs of the PNA members.
“The measures include a catch retention scheme and closure of FADs during the third quarter of the year, supported by 100% observer coverage that were included in the FFA proposal…,” the statement said.
“In addition, the Parties have agreed to closure of high seas pockets that are adjacent to the EEZs of PNA members and some other FFA Members through the prohibition of vessels licensed to fish in the EEZs of the PNA members from fishing in these high seas areas.
Officials said they are hoping the action by PNA Members would encourage the Pohnpei-based Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission [WCPFC] to adopt compatible measures for the high seas.
“The Parties have agreed on the text of a Third Implementing Arrangement under the Nauru agreement through which the Parties will be committing to adopting the measures outlined and will be seeking the support of the FFA Members to agree to apply similar measures in their EEZs and to propose the adoption of these measures by the Commission for the high seas,” the statement said.
