Non-profit calls for stronger action on illegal fishing and high seas transhipment

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.

"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.