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PNA TUNA NEWS

compiled by Samoa News staff

Tuna prices have risen continuously since April from USD $1,500 mt in Bangkok to USD $1,950 mt, a high that has not been seen for three years.

The high market price is attributed to low WCPO catch rates that have resulted in lower skipjack volume coming to Bangkok, coupled with strong demand from processors.

Recently canners began to buy only hand-to-mouth, minimums that meet their immediate needs, which has subsequently slowed the rapid growth in price.

MARSHALL ISLANDS CANNERY IN OPERATION

Majuro-based company KMI launched its new small-scale cannery last week. This is the happy culmination of an effort that began in 2015 with a pilot project and public forum, followed by the first Regional Cannery Supervisor Certification course in Majuro in 2016. The Marshall Islands Office of Commerce and Investment (OCI) and PNA worked closely with KMI to help ensure their success.

KMI’s next step is to see their canned tuna, labeled ‘Jalele Ek,’ on Marshallese grocery shelves, helping to promote the local theme: “Be/Buy Marshallese.”

Regional Cannery Supervisor courses have subsequently been held in the Solomon Islands and one is scheduled for Palau in the near future to encourage establishment of small-scale canning operations in other PNA nations.EU

KIRIBATI READIES ITSELF TO EXPORT TUNA TO THE EU

The EU Competent Authority (CA) has given Kiribati approval to export tuna products to the European Union.

This is big news for Kiribati; only the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea precede Kiribati as Pacific Island nations with comparable export privileges as a result of establishing Competent Authorities to ensure standards are met in the handling and processing of fish for export.

Kiribati Fish Limited (KFL) is currently the sole tuna processing plant in Kiribati, 60% of which is owned by the Chinese fishing firm, Shanghai Fisheries Group, and 40% by the Kiribati national government.

KFL looks forward to supplying Pacifical MSC certified frozen yellowfin tuna steaks and loins to European and US markets later this year.

NEW ZEALAND’S ‘WORLD CLASS SYSTEM’ PUTS FISHING STOCKS AT RISK

Twelve authors of an article published in the US-based National Academy of Sciences are questioning New Zealand’s claims to be a world leader in sustainable fisheries system efficiency.

The authors are research scientists who geographically span from New Zealand and Canada to England and Botswana and include expertise in fisheries as well as government and industry.

According to the authors, New Zealand fisheries fail to collect independent scientific data, relying instead solely on information provided by the fishing industry. The scientists also found that three-quarters of the NZ fish stocks have no formal assessment and that funding for stock assessments is about 45% of the levels seen in the early 1990s. Furthermore, there is evidence that only 8.4% of NZ fishing boats are covered with observers. Finally, a 2016 study by Dr. Glenn Simmons reveals widespread illegal dumping and misreporting have skewed NZ catch statistics.

Unfortunately this means the fish stocks may not be as sustainable as New Zealand reports and New Zealand may not be the world leader in sustainability and efficiency it purports to be.

US INCREASES FISHING IN COOK ISLANDS

The United States has purchased an extra 100 fishing days from Cook Islands for an undisclosed sum. The deal is on top of the US Treaty which allocates days to the US to fish in PNA and Cook Islands waters.

Moves to increase commercial fishing in Cook Islands have been somewhat controversial – first environmentalists pushed for and got a ban that no fishing would occur within 50 nautical miles of the island and now they are also campaigning against the use of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs).

TOURISM FEES TO REPLACE FISH DOLLARS IN PALAU

Revenues from commercial tuna fishing licenses will be replaced by allocation from the new Pristine Paradise Environmental Fee (PPEF) collection from tourists visiting Palau. Palau President Tommy Remengesau Jr. signed into law March 29 amendment to the Palau National Marine Sanctuary Law.

The $100 PPEF fee which will be collected as soon as the Minister of Finance promulgate its rules and regulation, will allocate $10 for the Fisheries Protection Fund. The fund will be used to finance the enforcement and surveillance of the marine sanctuary, while $12.50 from the fee will replace the shares that each of the 16 states of Palau get from the current commercial fishing licenses and revenues.

By 2021, 80 percent of Palau’s EEZ will be closed to commercial fishing while 20 percent of its waters will be designated as domestic fishing zone.

Remengesau said the PPEF, “represents an additional and meaningful component of the prudent decision to turn away from the already dangerously exploited fisheries industry and the deleterious mass tourism market and instead embrace a new identity that emphasizes quality over quantity.”

SOLOMON ISLANDS SMALL SCALE CANNING STARTS UP

Participants from government and industry were trained in small scale fish canning processes in Honiara, Solomon Islands last month. Organised by the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) with the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Chris Bourne from FoodStream taught participants how to can bycatch fish in accordance with international safety and HACCP standards.

Following these trainings several small-scale operations are running in Papua New Guinea and Marshall Islands. Melino Bain-Vete, PNA Policy and Research Support Officer commented that this year training would also roll out to Palau, FSM, Kiribati and Tokelau.

CATCH RATES INDICATE PNA AND S-E ASIAN DOMINANCE

Meanwhile, the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency’s compilation of economic and development indicators continued to evidence the dominance of PNA countries in regional tuna catches.

For 2015, the top 5 biggest catches occurred in Kiribati (641,119 mt), Indonesia (432,083 mt), Philippines (216,382 mt), Papua New Guinea (187,597 mt) and Federated States of Micronesia (166,163 mt). Collectively, catches in PNA waters (plus Tokelau) were 1,363,763 mt, or 50% of the total tuna catch of 2,692,412 mt.

Reprinted by permission of PNA

ABOUT THE PNA: The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) are eight Pacific Island countries that control the world’s largest sustainable tuna purse seine fishery supplying 50 percent of the world’s skipjack tuna (a popular tuna for canned products). They are Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu.