hits small

Drop in albacore hits small economies

NUMBERS of adult albacore avail able in South Pacific waters are falling and the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) is blaming the dep redations of Asian driftnet operations.

The director of the Solomon Islands based FFA, Philip Muller, said the economies of the small states in Oceania were suffering, particularly that of American Samoa which has two large tuna canneries. His remarks followed news of poor catches.

Muller said the South Pacific was now beginihg to witness the reper cussions of the massive driftnet fishing effort which had started with the rapid expansion of Japanese and Taiwanese driftnet fleets in 1987. The removal of large quantities of young albacore from surface waters by driftnets was now being felt through a reduction in numbers of adult albacore available to deepwater longline fishery.

He criticised the distant water fishing nations involved in driftnetting for their reluctance to provide accurate infor mation to South Pacific officials on the sizes of their catches by this method which the FFA estimates to have been worth 25,000 tonnes in 1989.

The agency believed its estimates to be conservative because the figures did not include those albacore which es caped the nets but died as a result of being temporarily trapped.

Muller said the South Pacific countries remained committed to a total ban on driftnet fishing despite experiments undertaken by some Asian boats to reduce the by-catch of other fish species, marine mammals, turtles and sea birds. These methods had not been proven to be effective. □