Now it will be difficult for illegal fishers to fish Guam’s tuna as Japanese and Taiwanese vessels will inspect identifying them. Guam’s local tuna population will soon have an added layer of protection against overfishing that will enable better protection of endangered tuna species in the Western and Central Pacific.
Taiwain’s Council of Agriculture (COA) reported that Japan and Taiwan will engage in an agreement which has the intent to “provide better protection to endangered tuna stocks”. It is also said that an accord was signed between Tawain and Japan will go into effect that allows “on-board inspections of each other’s fishing vessels in international waters.”
It is informed that the vessels inspection will require that operating licenses and fish catch reports are readily available for inspection and that a refusal to cooperate with such an inspection will classify the vessel as “illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU)” and be subject to punishments such as license revocation.
Conservationists have welcomed this step and local fisherman of Western and Central Pacific Islands as the large commercial fishing liners will be subject to increased oversight and regulation. It is said that the Western and Central Pacific Ocean has become the source of more than half of the world’s tuna catch due to stock depletions in other oceans.
