Fishing

Fsm

worry

A recently released fisheries report lists several major concerns and criticisms about the fishing industry in the Federated States of Micronesia.

The Micronesian Maritime Authority report covering 1992-1993 flags the decline in skipjack catches since the record of almost one million tons set in 1991.

MMA says that some of the decline can be contributed to a reduction in the Japanese pole and longline fleet operating in Micronesia, but it raises the concern that the decline might be attributed to “too much effort on the stock”.

Another major concern raised in the 38-page report is that increased purse seine catches of the past five years, in addition to the heavy longline effort in place in Micronesia, are having a negative impact on the longline catches.

A third issue raised was the uncertainties of the bigeye tuna catch by the surface fisheries and the impact on the longline catches.

The report states, “We know very little about the population dynamics and stock structure of bigeye tuna at this point. This is due to several factors, one being the lack of separation by species in catch reports for the surface fishery.”

It criticised tagging reports provided by the South Pacific Commission, saying no attempt had been made to break down the data by area or time. Instead, the data is lumped together for a regional view.

Furthermore, tagging results are based almost entirely on purse seiners. Longline returns have been very few.

“The concern here is that longliners catch a higher percentage of medium to large fish and lack of these fish in the tagging analysis might be creating some bias on the overall results,” the report stated.

The Korean purse seine fleet operating in FSM waters during this time frame also get tagged for criticism because its date quality did not show improvements, despite repeated requests by vari ous nations.