SPC’s major study on skipjack tuna

The importance of skipjack tuna in the Pacific is highlighted by a research programme launched in September under the auspices of the South Pacific Commission. Total catches in the region in which the SPC operates now exceed 200 000 tonnes a year, worth about SAI million.

The programme, which will last three years, will cost about SUS 3 million. It is expected to provide detailed information on stocks, migration and growth rates, and on the availability and effectiveness of various types of bait fish. About 30 000 fish will be tagged and released each year.

The programme is being financed outside the SPC’s regular budget by voluntary contributions from

Australia, France, Japan, New Zea land, the UK and the US. A ship, the Hatsutori Maru, 1 95-tonne gross, has been chartered from Japan for the programme. The co-ordinator, Dr R. E. Kearney, will have a staff of six or seven scientists, Subject to agreement with coun tries and territories concerned, the tentative cruise schedule will first cover Papua New Guinea, the Gilbert or the Solomon Islands, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia and Fiji.

During the first five months about 15 000 fish will be tagged with yellow plastic dart tags bearing the words “SPC Noumea” bracketed by duplicate numbers. To encourage recovery of the tags, a small reward will be offered for any tag returned

Island Foods to

continue in Cooks

As a Fiji fruit processor closed its doors because of lack of supplies of the main raw material, a Cook Is lands food processor, scheduled to close on August 31, had a new lease of life. Tropic Isles Ltd, of Sigatoka, Fiji, closed because not enough pas sionfruit was coming forward as far mers turned to more lucrative crops.

Island Foods Ltd, of Rarotonga, will continue to process citrus fruit, pineapples and other tropical fruit under an agreement with Greggs Ltd, of Dunedin. The Cook Islands Government will have a 51% in terest in Island Foods. Later these shares will be made available to local people.

Greggs initially will manage the factory and will distribute all its products. The loss of the processing industry would have been disastrous for the Cook Islands. Had the pro cessing factory closed, growers’ morale would have plummeted and it would have been extremely difficult, at some future date, to get the industry going again.

Tropic Isles Ltd, in Fiji, is Australian-owned. However, its departure from the scene will not see the end of fruit processing in the area as a rival firm, South Pacific Foods Ltd, also Australian-owned, is expected to take over the factory and continue processing pas sionfruit. South Pacific’s processing plant is more than 20 km from Sigatoka, but now the company is expected to move into the Tropic Isles factory.

South Pacific Foods has diver sified into other products, and will not be totally dependent on pas sionfruit. Farmers in the Sigatoka area once grew large crops of pas sionfruit, but in the last year or so have found it paid them better to concentrate on tobacco, vegetables and broom corn. • The Japan Telecommunication Industries Federation has strongly urged the Japanese Government to take a more positive attitude towards exports of telecommunica tion plants to developing countries to help Japanese companies compete more effectively with foreign rivals.

They also urged the government to conclude basic economic co-opera tion agreements with the govern ments of prospective importing countries.