It is said that these Pacific Island nations have their own ship the Esperanza that has been in the Pacific for the last seven weeks confronting unscrupulous foreign fleets that take 90 per cent of the fish, and even more of the profit. It is fact that for years fishing fleets from distant countries have plundered the Pacific’s tuna, riding roughshod over the legitimate concerns of the islanders. This has make the bigeye and yellowfin tuna in crisis, and the economies of many Pacific islands have been devastated by the continuing plunder of their waters.
Last year Japan, Taiwan and Korea had joined forces to block proposed conservation measures. But now a new agreement between Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu is set to redress the balance.
But the foreign fishing vessels were licensed to fish in the waters of eight Pacific island countries and now will be banned from operating in two regions of the Pacific Commons adjacent to these countries. Since most Pacific tuna stocks come from the waters of these countries, this will be a major contribution towards the protection of Pacific tuna.
It is informed that the foreign boats will be required to retain their full catches but in practice this will limit the time they spend at sea and the amount of tuna they can catch, because at present they can dump non-tuna species to make room in their holds for the more valuable catch.
