New Caledonia’s domestic carrier Air Calédonie is set to launch a biweekly international connection to neighbouring Vanuatu.

The new link is set to start operating from October 3 with two return flights, one on Mondays and the other on Thursdays.

The company said this followed a recent code-share agreement with New Caledonia’s international carrier Air Calédonie international (Air Calin).

• READ MORE: Other Kanaky New Caledonia crisis reports

The domestic company’s ATR 72-600 planes will be used to link Nouméa’s international La Tontouta airport to Port Vila, the company said.

Air Calédonie said the new agreement to fly to Vanuatu comes at a “difficult time”, almost four months after riots broke out in the French Pacific archipelago.

Seeking new markets
The ongoing unrest has made a huge negative impact on the economy and — because of long periods of curfew and state of emergency — has also heavily impacted domestic and international flights, causing in turn huge losses in business for the airlines.

“This new connection therefore is a vital opportunity to maintain employment and a sufficient level of business that are necessary to the company’s survival”, said Air Calédonie CEO Daniel Houmbouy, who also mentioned a “necessary capacity to adapt and evolve”.

New link to Paris
As part of a stringent cost-cutting exercise, Air Calin has had to cut staff numbers as well as reduce its regional connections.

It is also currently considering putting one of its aircraft on lease.

However, Air Calin is also preparing to launch a new direct Paris-Nouméa connection, via Bangkok, sometime in 2025, using a 291-seater Airbus A330-900neo on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The company is currently recruiting 12 pilots and 20 navigating flight assistants who would be based mainly in Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport.

Here again, the plan is directly connected to New Caledonia’s unrest and its impact on the economy.

“It’s all about continuing to generate an acceptable level of revenue to be able to bear fixed costs, in response to the consequences of the local economic context’s recent upsets”.

On a similar destination, Air Calin has also recently opened another connection via Singapore.

But regional routes have also been affected, sometimes suspended (Melbourne), sometimes significantly contracted (Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, Papeete).

As part of the restructuration, the new long-haul route via Bangkok would effectively replace the older connection to Paris via Tokyo-Narita.

Collateral damage for fishing industry
This has already caused major concerns from local fishing industry stakeholders, especially those exporting extra fresh tuna directly to Japan by plane.

“This will directly threaten the future of our industry. The repercussions will be catastrophic both in terms of employment in our industry and for [New Caledonia’s] economy,” commented Mario Lopez, who heads local tuna fishing company Armement du Nord, writing on social networks.

He said what was at stake was “300 to 400 tonnes of yellowfin sashimi-grade tuna which until now were sent each year for auction on Japanese markets”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The story of how the Marshall Islands went from being a bystander in commercial fishing in the Pacific to operating the world’s busiest tuna trans-shipment port, two fish processing facilities, a purse seine vessel net repair yard, and a fleet of locally-flagged and based fishing vessels is documented in a groundbreaking new book.

Our Ocean’s Promise: From Aspirations to Inspirations — The Marshall Islands Fishing Story is a 196-page overview of the Marshall Islands expanding engagement in the tuna fishery value chain.

The book documents how the Marshall Islands has benefitted from purse seine fishery revenue rising from about US$4 million annually to more than $30 million a year since 2010 through the country’s participation in Parties to the Nauru Agreement’s (PNA) globally recognised conservation and management regime that ensures sustainable fishing as well as dramatically increasing the islands’ share of tuna revenue.

• READ MORE: Other books and video reviews

“I personally witnessed the transformation in Marshall Islands’ fisheries through the collective endeavors of the PNA grouping of countries that control most of the tuna that is taken in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean,” Dr Transform Aqorau, the founding PNA CEO, writes in a foreword to the new book.

“As host of the PNA Office, the Marshall Islands was instrumental in promoting the PNA purse seine Vessel Day Scheme, and was a vociferous advocate of the PNA initiatives.”

Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority Director Glen Joseph conceived the idea for a book narrating the history of commercial fishing in this central Pacific nation.

A partnership with the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency provided necessary support for the work on the book that was researched and written by Giff Johnson, long-time editor of the Marshall Islands Journal, the weekly newspaper published in Majuro.

‘Document our story’
Joseph recognised the FFA for its key role in supporting MIMRA “to document our story in the region”.

While the book takes the reader on a journey that begins in the 1920s, it focuses on the period from the late 1970s — as the Marshall Islands was gaining its independence and beginning to engage in the tuna fishery as a sovereign nation — to the present day.

It features a forward look at MIMRA’s latest initiatives to participate in the many levels of the tuna value chain, well beyond the limited role it once played as a collector of license fees from distant water fishing nations.

“The ‘oceanscape’ in 2021 is unrecognisable from the 1970s, with numerous opportunities at MIMRA’s doorstep and the agency well-prepared to pursue those opportunities,” writes Johnson in Our Ocean’s Promise.

“Our interest goes back to our humble beginning, and that is the ocean’s promise, which is our heritage, culture, food security, economic opportunity and highway to global engagement,” says Joseph in a quote from the new book. “All we aspire to is to sustainably and successfully manage our fishery.”

The book includes the first-ever detailed chronology of Marshall Islands and regional fisheries developments that catalogues the many challenges and roadblocks this nation and other independent Pacific islands faced as they worked to develop sovereign control first over their 200-mile exclusive economic zones and more recently to implement the PNA’s Vessel Day Scheme in order to shift the paradigm of the commercial fishery to one of rights-based management controlled by Pacific islands.

MIMRA will launch the new publication with a formal book ceremony in Majuro on October 8.

Marshall Islands President David Kabua is scheduled to keynote the launch event and FFA Director-General Dr Manu Tupou-Roosen is expected to deliver a virtual message to the programme.

• Our Ocean’s Promise: From Aspirations to Inspirations — The Marshall Islands Fishing, by Giff Johnson, Amazon Direct Kindle Publishing.

An allegedly “enslaved” Indonesian fisherman on board Yu Shun 88, a Taiwanese flagged tuna longliner, has now been repatriated from Fiji to his homeland, says an Auckland lawyer.

Barrister and solicitor Karen Harding alleged in a social media video message addressed to the skipper that the fishing boat was holding her client against his will in “abject” working conditions.

But with the help of an Indonesian government representative and a charity group known as Pacific Dialogue, the fisherman was repatriated to Indonesia last weekend.

READ MORE: From traffic law to human rights – how an Auckland woman is fighting for justice for 30 fishermen

Harding, a lawyer with a high profile in acting on drink and driving cases who has branched into human rights lawsuits, said the unnamed fisherman’s bed was infested with fleas, food was spoiled, and there was no fresh soap or water for showers.

The fishermen on the boat, which carries up to 17 people, were also forced to work for 18-20 hours a day, she claimed.

Harding said the captain had taken the passport, the seaman’s book and withheld pay as a security bond.

The fisherman wanted to go home due to “horrible working conditions” and many injuries.

Wages withheld
One fisherman was so injured, he was “not even able to hold a chop stick,” Harding said.

“You are holding him against his will and your company is not paying him his wages and holding the wages back as security,” she alleged in the video message.

Her client got a job to work on a Taiwanese fishing vessel in Suva and “was promised, he was going to get US$450 (NZ$672) in wages and commission of US$400 (NZ$589) per month per docking,” Harding said.

Not paying them and holding wages as security was “creating forced labour”, Harding said.

“I liaised with the Indonesian government on Sunday … and liaised with the charity group known as Pacific Dialogue,” and the latter reported the matter to the embassy, Harding said.

The Indonesian government had been helpful in a timely dealing with this matter.

The Indonesian government had arranged for the representative of the Indonesian government to go to the agent’s office on the Suva wharf,” Harding said.

Seeking wages
Now that the fisherman was home, the problem was getting his wages for the time he had worked on the ship.

Out of NZ$1261 allegedly owed to him, he had only received $141 for four months of work. His contract had said that “if he didn’t complete the contract they weren’t going to pay his wages,” said Harding.

There are other fishermen on board the same ship, but because Harding was only dealing with one fisherman, the status of the others is unknown.

The same fisherman had also allegedly been subject to similar harsh conditions in New Zealand waters on board a Korean vessel.

The fisherman still had not been paid by the Oyang 77, for the period of 2009 January 22 to 2010 December 6.

“He effectively only got paid only one hour a day at the NZ minimum pay rate,” Harding said.

“And he worked 18 hours a day on average.”

No comment was available from the company’s involved.

The Yu Shun 88 is now headed towards Solomon Islands and is expected to spend another 12 months at sea with other fishermen on board.

• Indonesia cracks down on brutal conditions on foreign ‘slavery’ fishing boats
• Former Oyang crew in legal battle

By Scott Waide in Lae

Landowning clans in the Papua New Guinean city of Lae are threatening to close down five fish processing plants if the government does not review the existing agreements that govern them.

The clans, which include the Ahi and the Busulum, say they have been cheated of development benefits.

Since the agreements were signed four years ago, they have received K5000 a year for the five portions of land they own.

The threat comes after three years of complicated wrangling with the government and the companies over landowner benefits.

If the landowners have it their way, Majestic Seafoods, Frabelle and three other fish processing factories will be forced to shut down next Tuesday.

Landowner company BUP Development is calling on the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) to review the existing agreements so that they receive more in terms of landowner benefits.

Bad deal
After four years, it has now become clear, landowners got a bad deal.

The landowners are paid a total of K5000 (NZ$2225) annually for the five land portions they leased to the companies. The deal was negotiated by the provincial administration at the start of the projects.

Apart from a K2 million (NZ$890,000) premium payment made several years ago, the landowners receive little else.

They are also not party to agreements between the state and the fish processing companies.

They also do not know what the terms of the state agreement are.

The landowner company since issued a 7-day notice to the government to come to Lae for negotiations.

They are demanding K20 million in compensation as well as a review of the memorandum of agreement they signed with the companies.

Scott Waide is EMTV’s Lae bureau chief and began his career with the television station in 1997 as a news and sports reporter and anchor. He has won several awards for his journalism. This article is republished with permission.

• More PNG stories

After the closure of one of its tuna canneries, American Samoa is looking to recover by giving away tonnes of the fish to its neighbours, a move welcomed by Tokelau.

In December, tuna supply group Tri Marine indefinitely closed its Samoa Tuna Processors plant based in Pago Pago after supply and profit issues.

While the fate of Samoa Tuna Processors remains uncertain, American Samoa is now sending its excess tuna to the governments of Tokelau and Samoa.

Earlier this month both neighbours were gifted more than 11 tonnes of tuna each — in Tokelau’s case, enough to match two years worth of its tuna imports.

American Samoa Department of Commerce Director Keniseli Lafaele said there were plans to extend this offer to Tuvalu and Kiribati as well.

The main idea behind it, said Lafaele, was to establish economic relations and improved access to the fisheries of the wider Pacific.

“We would like to explore the possibility of exporting goods from American Samoa to the neighbouring countries.” 

Mutually beneficial
This could be mutually beneficial for Tokelau, a country heavily reliant on both imported goods and income made through selling fishing licences to foreign nations, said Lafaele. 

Despite its population of roughly 1500 people, Tokelau netted US$13.5m in 2016 alone from the licensing of its 320,000 sq km exclusive economic zone.

Seiuli Aleta, Acting General Manager of the Office of the Council for the Ongoing Government of Tokelau, said American Samoa’s gift was a sign of the growing relationship between the two countries. 

“It’s not just that we’re located in the same geographical area and there’s a primary interest in fisheries, there’s a collective interest which I think in terms of economic development is probably good for both countries.”

Stan Crothers, a fisheries adviser to Tokelau, said Tokelau was working closely with Tri Marine leading up to the closure of its processing plant in Pago Pago.

“It’s really unfortunate that they had to close. And I guess the donation of that canned fish is just an example of the sort of relationship we had. We’re very disappointed that that didn’t go further but we’re hopeful that one day that might come again.”

He said the company was offering Tokelauans the opportunity to work on boats, in the Pago Pago factory and in some management positions.

“On the American Samoan side you’ve got the capital and the plants, we’ve got the fish, there’s a deal made in heaven there somewhere isn’t there?”

Aleta said despite the closure of Samoa Tuna Processors, the prospect of jobs and training offered to Tokelauans by American Samoa were still “on the table”.

Mackenzie Smith is a Te Waha Nui student journalist at Auckland University of Technology.

“The announcement of the lifting of yellow-card status ends more than two years of hard work led by the Solomon Islands government, other ministries working with the fisheries sector, and the industry—and we could not be more pleased that the tireless efforts to address the concerns and challenges, have finally met with success,” said Director-General James Movick.

“I know the FFA membership join our secretariat team in this hats-off moment for the Solomon Islands,” he said in response to the EU announcement yesterday.

“It is a credit to the minister and cabinet, all the officials and workers involved across the many sectors involved in meeting the health and food safety, and the industry and vessels working to ensure catch documentation and handling standards and systems are now in place.”

For its part, the Solomon Islands Ministry for Fisheries addressed a broad range of issues covering tuna management and development at the national level, staffing and engagement with a broad range of stakeholders, and enforcing rules for fish-handling, processing and food safety.

Minister John Maneniaru had noted the comprehensive reforms and administrative and the legal frameworks aligned to green card status, is a great achievement, but one that must be maintained.

Sustained self-evaluation needed
“The need for sustained and consistent standards of self-evaluation would help support that call for maintaining market access,” said Movick.

FFA technical and advisory staff had worked closely with MFMR personnel to facilitate various aspects of enhancing IUU mitigation systems including inspection practices, legal frameworks and catch documentation.

“Sustaining strong IUU mitigation measures and associated technical and fiscal resources remains an ongoing challenge for all FFA members,” he said.

“There are many facets of tuna fisheries work that exemplify the importance of working as a team, but the EU market access work is surely one of the most formidable features for Pacific nations wanting to get tuna to global markets, and the Solomon Islands is now very familiar with the work involved,” said Movick.

Forum Fisheries Agency

Seventeen Pacific island countries, including New Zealand and its territory Tokelau, will have the results of a Pacific-wide study revealing the real value of lost annual revenue in the Pacific’s US$6-7 billion fishery through illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

The results of the two-year study: Towards the Quantification of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing in the Pacific Islands Region, coordinated by the Forum Fisheries Agency will be reported to countries in a closed session tomorrow as part of FFA’s 19th Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Working Group meeting held in Auckland, New Zealand.

The FFA sessions follow on from two other key MCS events hosted in Auckland this month.

Discussion by the MCS working group officials will be followed by the report’s public debut at a media launch with FFA’s Director-General James Movick, Tuvalu’s Minister for Works and Natural Resources Pita Elisala, and the report’s author, MRAG’s Duncan Souter taking questions.

“This is the first time that the Pacific countries, through FFA have been in a position to determine the type and scope of such a review,” said FFA’s Movick.

“The study itself provides a clearer sense of what the main IUU risks are, what is working, and what needs additional priority when it comes to ensuring tuna vessels in Pacific waters are complying with the rules.”

At the core of the report is for the first time, being able to speicifically quantify the nature and extent of IUU fishing in the Pacific region’s fishery.

Planning with confidence
What that means at the street-level is the information in the report will help Pacific countries plan with confidence against losses through more effective stock assessments and stronger MCS responses.

Importantly, says FFA, the report provides the most reliable and current estimate, which puts to rest previously touted guesses totalling up to US$1.5 billion.

The Federated States of Micronesia has applauded FFA’s initiative in putting together the report. Attending the meeting, Susan Lowe-Gallen, FSM’s Chief of Compliance says the report is a game changer and sees two main impacts the region needs to take note.

First it elevates the Pacific to be one of the leading forces in the fight against IUU tuna fishing globally, “I don’t think any other region in the world has that [study] at this point,” she said.

She admits the numbers would not be absolute but “it gives us a better sense, a better estimate for the Pacific overall. In that regard we are slightly ahead of the game.”

But that follows up with a warning and the second impact that might hit the region as a result of the study.

“We don’t want decisions that end up going to the FAO [UN Food and Agricultural Organisation] or IMCS [International MCS Network] or anyone else that would could generate things such as frameworks or initiatives that would actually set the Pacific back a step from where we already are.

‘More at stake’
“We’re working hard and we’re trying our best to ensure that we don’t end up like a lot of those countries in Europe and Africa. We have a lot more at stake because for the majority of our countries, fisheries is all they have –we don’t have anything else so we have a little bit more at stake than many others.”

It is already a moot point that the majority of Pacific countries agree it is the “Unreported ‘U’” in IUU that is an area of weakness in current MCS efforts.

Samoa points to the absence of independent catch monitoring and verification in the longline sector as major weakness and therefore needs more attention for a mitigation upgrade.

“Very importantly, this report will set a definitive baseline for the scale, composition and quantified value on IUU fishing and what it is costing this region, against which future success can be measured,” said Movick.

“It will also help to provide a clearer basis to assess what is working and what needs reworking to ensure that collective regional efforts are targeted toward the most prevalent and costly forms of IUU in the evolving Pacific tuna fishery.”

And that is exactly one of the major roles the study is expected to provide.

It will provide evidential support for IUU mitigation management measures.

‘Don’t have ammunition’

According to Hugh Walton, FFA’s project manager for the EU-funded DEVFISH II programme, which coordinated the study, the report will allow discussion on mitigation measures “because we already know what they are but we don’t have the ammunition for them.

“We’re hoping that this report will give us the ammunition, say management measures in the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) sense, then for us at the regional level in terms on how we focus our MCS activities and then at the national level, in terms of our national level MCS activities, how they are focused.”

He cited as an example one of the MCS tools currently being discussed, e-monitoring and e-reporting in terms of the “U” for unreported.

“When you look at the e-monitoring and e-reporting tools in terms of the unreported, the camera doesn’t lie. In the trials we’ve done, we have done enough to know that the camera doesn’t lie.

“What that means is if you have a history of being a compliant vessel then I don’t need to worry too much about you. But if you rate on my compliance register over here [risk] – then that says I’m going to make you carry this camera – ideally. And there are, potentially, quite accessible mechanisms to focus on some of these risk areas. And tools are available and evolving to assist in that focus.”

Essentially, Walton added, “we are saying that this stuff is here, it’s now, and what it means is a change in the way we run our organisations and our national administrations.

“We don’t enter data anymore, we’ve got real time data that we can analyse and act on the analysis. So essentially we are moving towards a paradigm shift in the way organisations work.”

Frontline improvement
At the frontline of improving the management of the Pacific’s fishery are MCS practitioners.

Their efforts are guided by a newly endorsed “Fisheries Roadmap” that talks about increasing employment, revenue and economic returns to Pacific countries while ensuring sustainability of the tuna resource.

The MCS framework and the IUU work that forms a key part of it are all about ensuring there is tuna today and tomorrow- but it is a known fact that many times, decision-makers come up with things at very high superficial level without knowing what the reality is on the ground.

Which means that to deliver on the aspirations of, say, the Pacific Roadmap; and aligning them to the reality facing MCS practitioners is about the mechanisms needed to be put in place that will facilitate meeting some of those ambitious targets.

It means the support mechanisms will need to be built around what needs to be done to hit some of those targets – and the study being launched tomorrow will provide some of the building blocks to meet those ends.

Pacific Fisheries Roadmap

At the official opening of the 5th Global Fisheries Enforcement Training Workshop today there was general agreement that the key to stopping illegal fishing globally is through international cooperation and sharing of information by monitoring, control and surveillance practitioners around the globe.

“No nation is immune to illegal fishing activities. We must all work together whether that be at bilateral, regional or international frameworks to target and eliminate what is internationally recognised as environmental crime,” according to Martyn Dunne, Director-General for host New Zealand’s Ministry of Primary Industries.

He singled out the International Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Network as the collective platform that can deliver the “intent” of unity of purpose to “deter and eradicate the IUU threats to our oceans”.

He believes that to stamp out illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, the workshop (GFETW) needs to look at adopting the following five principles:

1. Acknowledge its existence (IUU – illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing)

2. Create and maintain unity of purpose in targeting offenders

3. Share information, intelligence and resources

4. Have the ongoing resolve to collectively bring in perpetrators to account before the courts, and

5. Effective control of nationals

Critical information
Through the five principles, Dunne believes the MCS international network has the influence to harness the power of intelligence and frameworks necessary to share critical information that would lead to the eradication of IUU fishing.

He points to a number of case studies that will be discussed during the week-long workshop showcasing the effectiveness of such a collective approach.

“The case study regarding international efforts targeting IUU vessels operating in the Southern Oceans is testament to these coalitions willing to fulfil international obligations and working collectively for a common outcome,” he said.

His final point was to re-affirm his belief in the power of the MCS Network (celebrating its 50th year of existence this year).

“Don’t underestimate the power of the network. It is a collective body of individuals linked through a common purpose. The relationship you forge here is critical to achieving success and the ability personally to contact counterparts whose trust and confidence has been established through such conferences is often more effective than prolonged and formal channels that can limit timely action.”

Chair for the MCS Network Cephas Ralph said: “As a global entity the network through its promotion of international cooperation plays a significant part ensuring that national jurisdiction and borders are less of a barrier to the enforcement of surveillance activities for member countries.”

He highlighted the key strength of the network which has grown to more than 70 member countries covering every inhabited continent on the globe.

New members
New members South Korea and Cambodia were acknowledged today.

“One of the great strengths of the network is its ‘informal’ structure. Indeed, the network does not wish to interfere with the policy issues of any country or region.”

In fact, the global organisation is not bound by a treaty or convention. Rather, its membership of MCS practitioners across the world designed the network to promote cooperation and exchange of information; help with MCS capacity building; and gives it “wiggle room” to develop it in line with the needs of MCS practitioners.

The powerful reach of the network is expanded by working with organisations such as FAO, Interpol, by promoting exchanges of information, coordinating training activities, brokering exchanges of MCS equipment, promoting exchanges of expertise between countries, and organise workshops such as the GFETW.

“In my view the network remains increasingly relevant and should be developed by members as they wish it to be. We have to continue to search for new ways to capitalize better on our key asset which is the expertise and knowledge of the MCS practitioners,” said Ralph.

“It is indisputable that the network is bringing together, at the global level, the best knowledge and expertise in the world of fisheries enforcement. At this workshop, we hope to develop a process to capture and archive the high level risks inherent in IUU activities.”

During the week, participants will be shown all the charges that are outstanding. As well as recent successes in combating IUU.

One of the reasons for people like Ralph to be more optimistic today than say decades ago is that “the main drivers for change in the fisheries sector are: the work of the international community in particular through the FAO-COFI in establishing ever more clear and comprehensive international rules.

“International cooperation remains the key to finding solutions to IUU issues. No single state can resolve the problem by themselves and no country is without sins in this field.”

Pacific officials join global tactics workshop on illegal fishing

A large contingent of Pacific island country officials will be among delegates from 60 countries meeting in Auckland today to discuss latest tactics to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing across the globe.

The 5th Global Fisheries Enforcement Training Workshop (GFETW) will align to the theme: “Working together to combat IUU fishing to ensure the sustainability of world fish stocks.”

Hosted by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the International Monitoring Control and Surveillance (MCS) Network, it is an opportunity for nations to update each other on the latest techniques and technologies and to strengthen the communication ties that makes the MCS network successful.

The International MCS Network focuses in particular on enhancing cooperation with developing countries, and at the 4th GFETW held in Costa Rica 2014, several presentations pointed to the need to deploy additional efforts in developing countries in order to strengthen their capacities to implement effectively internationally agreed measures. These efforts were urged to address governance, legislation and technical capacities (means and skills).

MPI spokesperson Dean Baigent said global co-operation means there was increasingly nowhere to hide for boats and crews that deliberately plunder high seas fisheries.

“We have a successful network where nations share information gathered from satellite monitoring, aerial surveillance, catch data and vessel inspections that targets illegal operators and makes it very difficult to profit from IUU fishing.”

Obvious host
Baigent plugged New Zealand as the obvious country to host the global workshop.

“We are responsible for managing the world’s fourth largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and are an active participant in monitoring and patrolling the toothfish fishery in the Southern Ocean and the tuna fishery in the southwest Pacific Ocean.”

Niue’s MCS Officer Launoa Gataua certainly hopes the meeting will deliver on its objective as Niue desperately needs help for the monitoring, control and surveillance of its 360,000 sq km fishery.

Niue had only recently re-opened its waters for fishing in June 2013 and so far licensed seven vessels with the hope that its cap of 10 will be reached in the near future.

However, they are aware that a lot of their fishery income is hemorrhaging through illegal, unreported and unregulated fishers. And they are powerless to do anything about it at the moment.

Niue is one of three Pacific island countries without a patrol boat but that is not usually a big problem because it has a constitutional arrangement with New Zealand to provide surveillance for its EEZ. But for the whole of 2015, that service did not happen as New Zealand assets were diverted elsewhere.

‘Pretty much blind’
“Last year alone we had no surveillance patrol done for our EEZ except for a chance visit by a French patrol boat which was very welcome. But that apart we are pretty much blind,” Gataua said.

“We do know there’s a lot of IUU going on in our EEZ. An estimate of how much that loss of income is to Niue would probably be on the low side.”

He explained that they get regular reports from visiting yachts on their way from the Cook Islands. Reports which they [Niue’s fisheries division] are not picking up through the Automatic Identification System (AIS) or the regional Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) run by the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA).

“To me that’s an indication of IUU fishing,” he said. “Each of those ships sighted is lost income to Niue.

“But what else can we do? It’s too hard for us to monitor the area.”

Gataua is attending the 5th Global Fisheries Enforcement Training Workshop and is hopeful the next five days will provide options and help for Niue’s situation. Help that would have significant impacts to Niue’s economy. With its GDP, a meager $28.5million, any increase from its fishery revenue would be a massive boost considering that tourism, is the biggest earner at just under $6million.

“If we can reduce the IUU going on in our EEZ, it’s quite feasible that our fisheries revenue will rival that of our tourism sector.”

He points enviously towards their smaller neighbor Tokelau, whose 2015 fisheries revenue topped $12.5million, as to what is possible.

The Future of Fisheries Roadmap

United States boats might soon be allowed back into the world’s best tuna fishing waters after the 17 Pacific states that control the waters offered to compromise in an attempt to end a six-week standoff.

A group of Pacific island states — which includes small islands and atolls such as Tuvalu, Tokelau and the Marshall Islands — along with New Zealand and Australia have been refusing to issue fishing licences to around 36 US vessels to trawl in their waters since the start of the year after their owners, typically tuna-supply companies or individuals, refused to meet payments agreed to in August last year.

The standoff means US boats cannot access seas where around half of the world’s skipjack tuna are caught each year. It is also endangering a vital revenue stream for some of the world’s poorest nations.

​The Pacific island countries have now agreed to sell fewer fishing days to the US boats, in line with the US’s request, with the remaining days to be sold to fleets from other countries or local boats, said James Movick, Director-General of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency.

The agency has been responsible for negotiating the fishing agreement on behalf of the Pacific states.

Pacific island countries aim to both raise revenue and manage tuna stocks by selling fishing days each year to either countries or companies, which in turn allocate them to different vessels. The minimum price for one fishing day is US$8000.

Significant changes
The current dispute first arose in November when the US government asked for significant changes to the August agreement it made on behalf of the American Tunaboat Association. It had agreed to pay $68 million so that its member boats could fish for 6250 days collectively.

The first quarterly payment toward that was due at the end of December, in time for licences to be issued at the start of January.

The association now wants to cut the fishing days by 30 percent and reduce its payment by $23 million, blaming sharply lower tuna prices. The US is entitled to its allocation of fishing days under a nearly 30-year-old treaty that is linked to a $21 million annual aid payment to the islands.​

The new proposal “should satisfy the US without the need for any further negotiation,” and he is hopeful that licences will be able to be issued over the next couple of weeks, Movick said.

No specific details have been released about the new proposal. Movick said negotiations were​continuing.

The US has officially withdrawn from the treaty beginning in January 2017 and new negotiations over access for U.S. boats will be undertaken over the coming year, Movick added.

Lucy Craymer is a Wall Street Journal correspondent in Hong Kong.

—

The United States pulled out of the US Pacific islands fisheries treaty last month which could deprive Pacific nations of US$89 million of income this year.

The FFA Director-General, James Movick, said the meetings in Nadi would focus on other countries able to take the fishing days that America refused to buy.

Movick said:

“That would enable countries to sell those days at a price probably not as high as we had expected to receive from the US, but nevertheless to be able to sell some of the days they now have available in order to have some income this year for the days the US can not, or says it can not, purchase at this time.”

Movick said FFA members might also discuss renegotiating terms with the US to resume fishing this year.

The decision by the United States to withdraw from the 30-year Tuna Treaty with Pacific Island countries will not take effect until January 2017, says Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) deputy director general Wez Norris.

In his initial response to Pacnews queries, Norris admitted that the impact of the US withdrawal “will be markedly different among individual Pacific Island Parties (PIPs)”.

“Some of them have viable alternative markets that could absorb their fishing days with relatively little impact. Others, however that are reliant on the Treaty to sell their days would struggle to achieve revenues similar to those currently enjoyed, said Norris.

In addition, parties will lose economic assistance under the treaty, which contributes significantly to the core revenue of some of Pacific nations.

All is not lost for the Pacific, and according to Norris, the immediate task ahead is for PIPs that are part of the Vessel Day Scheme (VDS) to assess their ability to sell additional days to other fleets for 2016.

“This will be a critical component of any arrangement that PIPs can craft for responding to the revised proposal of the US.

‘Redesigning Treaty’
“Beyond that, our work will focus on redesigning the Treaty so that it can still play its vital government to government roles, but can cater for more flexible commercial arrangements between individual vessel operators and countries that sell then fishing days. This will ensure that the treaty adequately reflects the nature of the fishery and respects the VDS.”

Norris said the 17 PIPs were keen to find the best solution to the situation that has now arisen with the United States.

“PIPs are committed to continuing the work already started, both to ‘fix’ 2016 and to redesign the treaty for the longer term to address the weaknesses in the current arrangement that the US has finally come to recognise.

Under the agreement reached by the parties in Brisbane in August last year – the US and the America Tuna Boats Association (AT) were to make the first quarterly payment of US$17 million by January.

However In November last year, FFA received an advice that the “ATA could not afford the first quarterly payment.’

In response, the PIPs through the FFA informed the US that it will not issue licenses, halting the entire 37 fleet operating in the Pacific.

Since the US is one of the largest purse seine fishing fleets fishing in the Pacific region, its withdrawal will have an impact on the FFA’s Regional Observer Programme.

“Complete cessation would have noticeable impact on the region’s observer programmes. We are working hard to ensure there will indeed be fishing in 2016, Norris said.

On the issue of the US being taken to task for reneging on its commitment, Norris said: “There are avenues under the treaty and broader international law for PIPs to take action but the immediate action now is to resolve the issue in mutual best interest.”

“Unfortunately, events like this can damage relationships and erode trust that may take significant time to rebuild,” said Norris.

The 17 Pacific Parties to the US Tuna Treaty are Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, United States, and Vanuatu.

Tuna fishing deal dispute keeps US boats out of Pacific

Nauru’s recent announcement that it would ban transshipping practices makes it the third Pacific Island country to do so. Kai Ping Lew of Asia-Pacific Journalism reports on the impact for the region.

Nauru has joined the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu to become the third country in the Pacific to ban the controversial practice of transhipping.

The ban comes in the wake of the Rainbow Warrior III discovering Taiwanese longliner Shuen De Ching No 888 operating illegally in its waters, including offloading its catch to a mothership and keeping incomplete records of its catch.

The practice of transhipping allows longliner vessels to stay out on the high seas without coming to port for long periods at a time by transferring their catch to other ships.
This results in the “laundering” of fish, making it difficult to identify where the tuna was caught and where the fish is consumed and allows overfishing to occur.

Being at sea for long periods also allows the vessels to evade regulations checks as vessels use the high seas pocket to use unapproved fishing methods and carry out questionable human rights practices.

“For them they’re just sitting there like a facility and all they do is fish all year round,” says longtime Greenpeace campaigner Lagi Toribau on the Rainbow Warrior.

“The Pacific Islands are losing out on potential economic returns, but also in a lot of cases we don’t even know how much fish is being taken out and that affects the assessment of the overall fish stock.”

Fish stock status
Not knowing the status of the fish stock has significant implications as scientists and policymakers depend on the information reported by boats.

Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) estimates show that the Western and Central Pacific Ocean tuna catch is worth between US$4 billion to US$5 billion.
Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Vanuatu have banned the practice for foreign fishing vessels.

New Zealand and Tokelau have banned the practice “with exceptions”, whereas Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati and the Cook Islands allow the practice with government authorisation.

Toribau said Greenpeace was pleased Nauru had taken such a strong stance against transhipping and the environmental organisation hoped that other Pacific Island countries would follow in their footsteps.

“If the countries that ban foreign vessels only decide to ban it altogether, then we would almost have a majority of Pacific Island countries that border the high seas which are in the middle of the countries’ national waters.

“If that happens, we can start eliminating vessels that are choosing to just be high seas and force them to have a licence with a Pacific Island country,” said Toribau.

Samoa adopts a laissez-faire approach as it does not deem fish caught outside Samoan waters as contributors to the economy such as revenue generated by fees collected from boarding and inspections conducted on the vessels.

Strict regulations
Samoa’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Assistant Chief Executive Officer Joyce Samuelu Ah Leong said the regulations in their country only allowed transhipping in their designated port, under strict regulations set by the Western Central Pacific Fishing Commission (WCPFC).

Ah Leong said since these vessels did not fish in Samoan waters, they did not catch “Samoan fish” and do not impact on the domestic fishing industry.

“Our regulations are very clear and we do have good relationships with foreign fishing companies wanting to tranship in our port,” said Ah Leong.

Other Pacific Island fleets are feeling the pinch due to the declining South Pacific albacore fish stock.

According to Greenpeace, hundreds of workers were laid off in Fiji and only one vessel in the Tongan fleet continues to fish.

Lost fish
The Pacific Island nations are small in land area but comprise vast ocean states, thus most of their natural resources are underwater.
According to the WCPFC, six major fishing powers account for the 70 percent of the region’s total tuna catch – Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States. Only 20 percent is caught by Pacific Island fleets.

In an effort to reclaim some of these profits, PNG Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources Mao Zeming recently announced at the Pacific Islands Forum that from 2016 all tuna caught in archipelagic waters must be processed in Papua New Guinea as a condition of licence for access to fish in Papua New Guinea waters.

Effectively, vessels that are not linked to processing plants will not be given fishing days in the archipelagic waters, and processing plants will receive more fishing days the more fish they process.

“For too long there is so much leakage of raw materials in the region that is flooding the markets in Asia and Latin America pushing the prices of raw materials down,” he said.

Mao said the problem was that both foreign and local fleets harvest the resources and take them away to other countries to be processed.

Lack of political will
While requiring the fish caught in archipelagic waters to be processed in Papua New Guinea may improve the local economy, questions of unethical fishing practices like transhipping and overfishing still need to be addressed.

Toribau said that the current level of overfishing will cause the stock of bigeye and yellowfin stock to drop.

“We expect that at this time there will be less vessels, but we see that people are building bigger vessels, more efficient boats, and that does not match with the situation and the status of the fishery,” said Toribau.

“There isn’t a shortage of awareness, warnings, or scientific advice. Where we’re stuck is the political will, as the governments are defending the interests of the industry.”

Toribau added that New Zealand had a critical role to play in taking a stand against transhipping as it had a major political role in the region and was heavily involved in Pacific Islands fisheries.

“This is an opportunity for New Zealand to show leadership and stand in solidarity with other Pacific nations.”

Failing that, Toribau sees the last resort for action being a change of consumer habits to send price signals to the market.

“It’s about time consumers start demanding for sustainable tuna as knowing there is a market for it is the only reason the industry is surviving,” said Toribau.

Kai Ping (KP) Lew is in the 2015 Asia-Pacific Journalism Studies paper and is doing an honours programme in journalism at AUT University.

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Report by Pacific Media Centre

Transhipment – the process of transferring fish at sea from a smaller fishing vessel to a larger storage vessel – has been linked to overfishing, and calls have been made for a Pacific-wide ban. Michael Neilson of Asia-Pacific Journalism reports.

Pressure is mounting to outlaw Pacific region transhipments – a practice linked to overfishing – after Nauru’s decision to impose a ban in its waters.

This decision follows Greenpeace’s discovery of the Taiwanese longliner Shuen De Ching No. 888, which the environmental organisation claims had been fishing without permission near Nauru’s waters for two months.

Along with an illegal amount of shark fins, Greenpeace said the logbook also showed an implausibly low catch of five tonnes, suggesting the vessel had been transferring undocumented fish to another ship.

Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior III has been traveling throughout the Pacific over the past few months, monitoring the tuna industry.

Speaking from the ship before to the discovery, senior oceans campaigner Karli Thomas told Asia Pacific Report Greenpeace was pushing for a regional ban on transhipments to be on the agenda at the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting in December.

“The tuna fisheries in the region are out of control, and particularly the longline sector.

“[Transhipment] is giving fishing vessels the ability to stay at sea almost indefinitely, and some of these fleets are fishing only on the high seas.”

She said the Pacific Island nations are losing out: both their fishermen, as tuna stocks are plundered, and on jobs and income as the vessels bypass their ports.

Greenpeace are also concerned with the ability to monitor human rights violations.

“Their crew can’t get off, so if they are in a situation of exploitation they don’t have the chance to get away,” said Thomas.

Too many boats
“There are too many boats chasing too few fish,” said Bubba Cook, western central Pacific tuna manager for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

“Big eye tuna down is down to 16 percent of unfished levels, and yellowfin down to 20 percent. Skipjack and albacore stocks are still salvageable but we need to act now,” said Cook.

There are currently almost 3500 longliners and 300 purse seiners operating in the WCPFC waters.

Charles Hufflett, chairman of the Nelson-based Solander group, which has had an associate longline fishing company in Fiji since 1981, said while the number of vessels and amount of fish being caught is increasing, the catch per ship is falling.

“You’ve only got to go to Suva harbour and see 130 vessels anchored off there, all quite new. It’s just over capacity.”

Regional transhipment ban
There is currently a ban on transhipments for purse-seiners in the high-seas, in the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) area, but longliners are excluded.

Nauru joins the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu, which also have total bans on transhipment in their exclusive economic zones (EEZs).

Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, Vanuatu and Samoa all have bans on foreign vessels only, New Zealand and Tokelau prohibit the practice “with exceptions”, and the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati and the Solomon Islands allow the practice with government authorisation.

Thomas said this showed there was awareness it was a damaging practice and there needed to be a regional agreement to stop vessels from finding loopholes.

Politically challenging
Cook said that although a ban on transhipments, and high-seas fishing, were the “simplest solutions”, they were politically difficult.

“The WCPFC is a consensus-based decision-making body, and you only need one country to object, then nothing happens.

“When you have countries that are so heavily dependent on transhipment, like many of the Asian states, you’ll never get them to agree to a full ban.”

Cook said more resources were needed to go into properly monitoring transhipments.

“We need to make sure observers have the tools they need and the protection they need to do their job on 100 percent of the transhipments, both on the receiving vessel and on the delivering vessel.”

This view is consistent with that of New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries.

In a statement to Pacific Scoop, a spokesperson said such issues would not get consensus from the WCPFC, as it would be shut down by distant water fishing nations, whose fleets would be impacted on economically

“To build consensus around better management of these issues, New Zealand is working on clearly defined limits for fishing on the high seas, strengthening of current rules for transhipment, and better management of and research into the impact of FADs.”

Necessary practice
Hufflett said only those nations that wanted more ships to use their ports were pushing for a regional ban, and that it would not solve the problem of overfishing.

Hufflett said transhipment makes economic sense for some vessels, although his company did not perform the practice.

“If you want to catch fish the most economic way, such as a purse seiner 10 days away from American Samoa, it is ridiculous to say it should go back and forth, when it could just tranship on the high sea with observers and proper control.”

Hufflett said with video-monitoring systems (VMS) and proper observers, transhipping should not be an issue.

He was more concerned with the highly subsidised foreign fleets that local fishermen could not compete with.

Fix at the market
Hufflett said the market could address overfishing, by certifying the fish and certifying the buyers.

He said this could be done with proper catch-documentation and restrictions on importers, so they only imported properly documented fish.

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification system, of which Solander is a member, follows a similar procedure.

Instead of focusing purely on the methods used to catch fish, they ensure the fish are coming from sustainable sources, analyse the impacts the catch methods have on their particular marine eco-system, and that the fish can be traced back to those sources.

“Our chain of custody standard looks at traceability to ensure no illegal or unregulated fish, or non-certified seafood is mixed or substituted with MSC certified seafood,” said MSC regional director of Asia Pacific, Patrick Caleo.

Caleo said awareness about buying traceable, sustainably caught seafood is growing, and so too economic opportunities for the fishing industry.

Michael Neilson is a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies student journalist at AUT University.

Greenpeace calls for regional ban – following Nauru