PACIFIC: Warning on tuna stocks relaxed
Updated
A scientific committee has relaxed its warnings concerning dwindling tuna stocks in the Pacific. Last year the committee told the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission that inorder to protect tuna in the Pacific the catch of some tuna species would need to be lowered - in one case by up to 25 per cent. At this year's annual meeting the scientific committee has presented new findings that suggest tuna catches no longer need to be reduced. It's good news for the fishing industry, but as Steve Holland reports, pressure on stocks remains high as the fishing industry is told to exercise caution.
Presenter: Steve Holland
Speakers: Andrew Wright, Executive Director of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, John Calish, general manager of Fisheries and Aquaculture for Australia's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
HOLLAND: The tuna fishing industry of the western and central Pacific recorded landings exceeding two-million metric tonnes in 2006, and is now valued at about three-billion dollars annually. Although on the surface these figures may demonstrate a thriving industry, Andrew Wright, the Executive Director of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, says in the ocean it's a different story.
WRIGHT: Since May this year in all oceans, the Indian Ocean, the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Western Central Pacific Ocean there's actually been, the industry has been experiencing relatively low catches.
HOLLAND: Skipjack, big eye, yellowfin and albacore, make up the bulk of the Pacific Ocean's tuna catch, and last year according to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission almost two-point-two-million metric tonnes of tuna were caught, the second highest landings on record. The catch came in the wake of dire warnings forecasting the future of big eye and yellowfin tuna in the region.
WRIGHT: Scientists for ten years have been cautioning that further increases in the level of fishing effort on those resources are not advised and that the expansion of the fisheries should be proceed with caution at the risk of putting yellowfin and big eye into an over-fished situation.
HOLLAND: Twelve months ago the scientific committee was suggesting the fishing industry reduce the mortality rate of the big eye catch by 25 per cent, and cut the yellowfin catch by ten per cent. At this year's annual meeting the scientific committee of Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission returned with a more optimistic outlook. It's now suggesting to maintain stocks the industry should not increase its catch, but it still urges caution.
WRIGHT: They're not saying that we can relax and allow the fishery to expand. There are still a lot of unknowns in relation to the fishery that we need additional information on to improve our assessments to ensure that the assessments are more robust, that they reduce the amount of uncertainty associated with the assessments. So it's not as if in one short year there's been a significant change in the outlook, it just means that the new information that's been generated in the last 12 months for the fishery suggests that it's a little bit more optimistic than we thought 12 months ago.
HOLLAND: The fishing industry is a major contributor to the economies of Pacific countries. According to an industry report the fishing industry accounts for more than ten per cent of the Solomon Islands and Kiribati's economies. It's also an important industry for the Marshall Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Fiji and a number of other countries. And John Kalish, the general manager of Australia's department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry says the industry is showing no signs of slowing.
KALISH: There are a range of pressures on demand for tuna; first we need to realise that there are two broad markets, that's the sushimi or sushi market that's commonly recognised in Japan, the raw tuna, and then there's canned market.
HOLLAND: Dwindling stocks in the Atlantic Ocean resulted in an increase in European companies looking to the Pacific, an increase of both wealth and population in many parts of Asia has also boosted demand for canned tuna, and tuna in the Pacific is being used to fill a void in supply created by the over-fishing of other tuna species.
KALISH: There's the price of Atlantic blue fin tuna, Pacific blue fin tuna and southern blue fin tuna, as the price for those tunas has increased many of the people in Japan have said they can't afford to buy that, and so they have opted out for gone for the lower priced yellowfin tunas.
HOLLAND: It would be difficult to overstate the significance of the tuna industry in the Pacific. The multi-billion dollar industry provides jobs for thousands, while feeding millions. But Andrew Wright, the Executive Director of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, says the challenges in protecting the tuna industry are almost as vast as the oceans they inhabit.
WRIGHT: There's a lot of rhetoric around what needs to be done but actually putting that rhetoric into action and achieving the drawbacks that are may be required in order to address some of these issues is extremely difficult. On one hand you've got fairly exposed and fragile economies that are critically dependent on tuna as one of the only economic renewable resources they have available to support their economic development. On the other hand you have very large developed industrial tuna fleets that are trying to service loans and keep their commercial operations afloat. So it's a very difficult situation in terms of being able to drawback from a situation now where you have a larger number of players in the fishery and there's starting to be concerns about whether the resource can continue to support the current levels of fishing activity that is taking place.
