Iliesa
Tora, RNZ Pacific senior journalist
The
Pew Charitable Trust believes the Western Central Pacific
Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) needs to do more on port side
measures in order to reduce illegal, unreported and
unregulated (IUU) fishing.
And getting transhipment in
the high seas management also needs urgent attention, WCPFC
international fisheries officer Glen Holmes told RNZ
Pacific.
Three weeks out from the WCPFC 22nd Regular
Session in Manila, Holmes said the two issues are of great
importance and should be receiving a lot more attention
now.
Member countries and stakeholders will meet from
1 to 5 December.
Holmes said while there is progress
on the important South Pacific Albacore tuna fisheries, with
a management procedure expected to be adopted at the
meeting, Pew believes IUU fishing and transhipment in the
high seas needs equal attention.
“There’s always
multiple issues to be discussed in any Commission meeting,”
he said.
“One of the things that we are particularly
concerned about is the various management cracks that allow
for IUU fishing to occur.
“One of those is, for
example, is port state measures management. We would like to
see an improvement on that, there has been a little bit of
progress intersessionally on improving the port space
measures agreement, but we would like to see much more
progress on that.
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“We would we would have liked to
have seen something adopted this year but I don’t think that
is going to happen and I would like to see some progress
towards strengthening that measure for next year, if it
can’t be done this year.”
He pointed to the continuing
problem of transhipment in the high seas as well, being one
that has been discussed over the past 10 years.
A
pending report to be released on the issue, Holmes said, has
the WCPFC lagging behind the other four tuna fisheries
focused Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs)
in the world in the management of high seas
transhipment.
The other four tuna RFMOs are the
Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC),
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic
Tunas (ICCAT), Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) and the
Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna
(CCSBT).
Holmes said the improvement of the WCPFC
transshipment measure has been a a hot topic of debate for
quite a number of years now.
“It will again be
discussed in detail this year and I know that there is a
benchmarking exercise that is about to be released that
shows that WCPFC has the worst transshipment management of
all the tuna RFMOS now,” he said.
“Ever other tuna
RFMOhas lifted its game and brought its individual
management arrangements close to the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
guidelines.
“WCPFC is currently the laggard, so it’s
time for the the Commission to agree to improve its
transshipment measures.”
On why agreeing to an
efficient management plan for high seas transhipment, Holmes
said it is critical that member countries come to an
agreement on the best way forward.
He said this was
the major cause for delay.
“It essentially comes down
to different points of view between the members, between
various Members within the Commission, as to what the
problem is and, or whether a problem even exists,” he
said.
He said there are a group of members who believe
that high seas transshipment should be banned
altogether.
“There’s a group of members who believe
that high seas transshipment shouldn’t be allowed to occur,
that all the Pacific is geographically structured in such a
way that ports are always relatively close to, no matter
where you are in the convention area, and so vessels should
be required to go into port, offload their catch where they
can be observed and the catch can be verified and everything
can be shown to be above board.
“Having vessels
transship onto carriers in the high seas, there’s not as
much oversight and so there is more opportunities for IUU
activity and other illegal activity to occur.
“Other
members believe that high seas transshipment has enough
oversight, saying currently there are observers on carriers,
for example, and that everything is fine and there’s no
requirement to ban it.”
He said these differing
opinions don’t seem to be heading to a compromise position
in WCPFC.
Other RFMOS have been able to agree on what
they need to do, on the other hand.
“It’s just that
there has been no agreement in WCPFC, even though there has
been detailed discussions every year for the last eight
years now,” he added.
“I’m hopeful that finally an
agreement can be made to improve the transshipment measure
this year.”
Observer issues
Holmes said
another critical issue that Pew has been working on with
governments and partner organisations is observer coverage
on long line fisheries.
He said the current five
percent coverage is too low and needs to be changed to help
improve compliance by fishing companies, adding that a one
hundred percent coverage is needed.
“The Commission
only requires five percent coverage for long line on the
high seas and that’s not enough to one get a representative
picture of what’s happening from an independent source,.” he
said.
“And it’s also not enough to really incentivise
any any improvement in compliance. So, there really needs to
be a substantial increase in long line observer coverage and
that’s been our position for a number of years and it
continues to be our our position.
“It should really be
at 100 percent requirement.”
Pew also wants
independent observers on the compliance review
process.
Observers are currently not allowed, and
Holmes said the WCPFC is the only Tuna commission that does
not allow independent observers to sit in the compliance
review processes of of the RFMO.
He said the
Commission should open up the compliance monitoring review
to allow observers to observe what’s going on and therefore
gain the level of transparency and give confidence to the
public.
All for albacore plan
Holmes said Pew
is in agreement with WCPFC chair Josie Tamate, who told RNZ
Pacific two weeks ago the adoption of a management procedure
(MP) for South Pacific albacore at the upcoming WCPFC
meeting is her target.
Tamate said Forum Fisheries
Agency (FFA) members who are involved in South Pacific
albacore tuna fisheries have come to an agreement, which,
she hopes, would lead to the adoption of a
plan.
Holmes said Pew supports that move.
“I
agree with the chair that South Pacific albacore management
procedure is going to be one of the major issues,” he
said.
“The Commission has been working on a management
arrangement for South Pacific Albacore for well over a
decade now, so it’s time to finally agree to
something.
“I’m actually also confident that a
management procedure will be adopted and that will mean good
progress for the Commission in moving towards a modernised
management approach for South Pacific albacore.
“It’s
a really important fishery, particularly for a lot of the
islands, so that’ll be really good progress if we can get
that across the line.”
He said there are other other
aspects that Pew want to see progress on, like the
development of the big eye management procedure and how
yellowfin will eventually be managed.
“We need to see
progress on that as well as and there are always always room
for improvement and so anywhere we can make those
improvements we push for,” he added.
WCPFC chair
Tamate had also confirmed in her earlier interview that a
management plan for big-eye Tuna fisheries will be the next
step.
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