At last week’s negotiating session in Fiji on the U.S. Pacific fisheries treaty that expires next year, a U.S official told island fisheries leaders that their demands for higher fishing fees were “extremely disappointing” and threatened the future of the 25-year-old treaty. But island officials responded that if the United States wants to continue to have premium access it must pay for it.
Since the late 1980s, the U.S. Pacific fisheries treaty has allowed up to 42 U.S. flagged purse seiners access to exclusive economic zones of all islands in the Pacific. But Pacific islands are not happy with the financial returns of the treaty and earlier this year, Papua New Guinea announced its intention to end its participation in the treaty next year.
Island leaders are demanding a premium from the U.S. to extend the treaty because it provides U.S. boats access to the waters of every nation in the Pacific. Other fishing nations such as South Korea, Japan and Taiwan must negotiate on a one-to-one basis with each island.
The base payment rate for one fishing day has been bumped to $5,000 effective Jan. 1 by the eight member nations of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, which control an area of the Pacific that accounts for 49 percent of skipjack tuna caught globally.
But with the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Nauru taking the unprecedented action of closing their 200-mile zones to fishing when they ran out of agreed-to number of fishing days, the price of fishing days has skyrocketed. Some have already sold for as much as $8,000 this year, said PNA Office Director Dr. Transform Aqorau in Majuro Thursday.
The U.S. wants at least 9,000 fishing days per year and has offered to pay $5,000 per day, according to a statement presented by U.S. State Department negotiator William Gibbons-Fly in Fiji last week. But the Pacific islands are offering only 7,000 fishing days for a price of $10,000 per day, plus the U.S. government’s aid component included in the treaty.
Gibbons-Fly said “our industry is facing a very uncertain future” because of this demand and the difficulty in getting a treaty renegotiated before it expires in mid-2012.
A follow-up negotiating session has been set for January 12-16 in Fiji to continue the negotiations.
While the Pacific delegation acknowledged the mutual benefit of the treaty over the last 25 years, officials said the U.S. is “seeking premium access and must pay a premium price.”
