Pan Pacific Foods Manager Don Xu said Thursday that during the recently ended three-month ban on use of fish aggregation devices, or FADs, the three purse seiners that supply the Majuro factory did not do well.
However, he said “fishing is now picking up and we expect our boats to arrive in two weeks so we can resume production.”
The plant employs about 400 Marshall Islanders who clean, cook and freeze the fish that are shipped off-island for canning.
As part of measures to reduce catch of tuna in the region, the Parties to the Nauru Agreement instituted an annual three-month ban on the use of FADs from July to September. PNA officials said the FAD ban has been effective and have indicated they are considering increasing the ban on FADs to four or more months in 2012.
But the closure of the Majuro plant for a month is the first downside of the FAD closure reported.
