The fight for high

Cover Story

The fight for high seas control

By Sophie Foster Hildebrand

JUST like the fight to save the rain forests, the elephants, the tiger and the whales, the tides of internation al attention have turned and the focus is now on creating sustainable levels of fish eries’ stocks throughout the world.

With its waters covering nearly one third of the globe - and that it yields over half the world’s canned tuna - the Pacific has become a natural target, for both con servation and exploitation.

Not since the Cold War has the Pacific enjoyed the limelight on such a global scale. But, unlike the political maneuvering from the 60s to the 80s, in the lead-up to the turn of the century Pacific Island nations have emerged much more savvy to the ways of the world.

The issue of contention is the major migratory fishery’s stock which, running through Pacific waters, pass the Exclusive Economic Zones of several island nations.

According to the Forum Fisheries Agency, the western and central Pacific is host to the most productive tuna fishery in the world, with the annual landed value of the four principal tuna species-skipjack, yellowfin, bigeye and albacore - more than US$l billion.

These tunas migrate throughout a vast oceanic environment, with over 30,000,000 km of seas in the EEZs of island countries in the region and only 550,000 km of land (less than 2 per cent).

But, the FFA says, unlike virtually every

An aerial view of The Fiji Fish factory in Lami, outside Suva. The company has begun trial shipments to Europe but also has difficulty with [?]elght

other significant fishery in the world, the skipjack, yellowfin, and albacore stocks of the western and central Pacific appear capable of sustaining increased catches.

“These stocks, which together account for around 90 per cent of the region’s total catch, are arguably the world’s greatest fisheries resources that remain in a healthy state,” the PEA says. “As other tuna stocks continue to decline, or are brought under more restrictive fisheries management controls, and with world demand for wildcaught fish steadily increasing, fishing pressure on the tuna resources of the central and western Pacific will inevitably intensify,” the PEA says.

This particular issue came to a head in November last year, when member countries of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) made commitments to, among other things, limit global fishing capacity.

The repercussions were felt almost immediately. Ten days after the FAO announcement, Japan committed funds to reduce tuna fishing capacity by 20 per cent by this month (March 1999).

The European Commission followed suit the next month by proposing “drastic” cuts in catches of threatened fish species in European Union waters.

Although the EU saga is yet to be fully played out, the writing is on the wall for major European fishing nations. Even before the FAO and EU announcements, however, European fishing companies were already seeking other areas in which to fish.

According to reports, European fishing companies were seeking fishing rights in the South Pacific months before the EU announcement.

The Forum Fisheries Agency (FAA) reported the European Union had, last year. applied for licenses to allow 20 large fishing ships, mostly from Spain, to operate in the region. France was separately seeking licenses for French vessels to operate around its territory of New Caledonia.

According to several Pacific Island operators, with so much over-fishing in other parts of the globe, international operators are now searching for alternative areas to exploit. And the ripple effect of international decisions, such as that of the FAO, has served to make existing fishing licences, in areas such as the western and southern Pacific, very lucrative.

With its vast spaces and high levels of straddling stocks, the Pacific is now considered the next frontier in the drive to satisfy the developed world's demand for fish.

On a political level, this has become an

issue of great concern. In November last year, Masao Nakayama, the FSM’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations took the issue to the General Assembly on behalf of the SOPAC group, and the ten South Pacific Forum member countries represented at the UN - Australia; the Republic of Fiji Islands; the Republic of the Marshall Islands; New Zealand; the Republic of Palau; Papua New Guinea; Samoa; Solomon Islands; Vanuatu; and the Federated States of Micronesia, He said that for centuries, the ocean s bounty was the principal resource for the economic survival of many island countries representing “the most tangible asset for the future sustainable economic development of many of our island communities .

“We are concerned that the great poten tial that the ocean holds, however, cannot be realized if continued human induced pollutants, and the protection and manage ment of this vital resource are not compre hensively addressed by this body, and other

regional and non-governmental bodies,

Nakayama said.

In the Pacific, he said, a pro-active approach had been taken with ongoing dia logue with the Distant Water Fishing Nations who fish in Pacific EEZs. This had evolved into full negotiations on a regional

The Solomons has thrived because of tuna, with local cannery, Solomon Taiyo, considered one of the success stories

arrangement for the conservation and man agement of tuna resources, and at the centre of the storm is the implementation of a

Vessel Monitoring System (VMS).

In April last year, the FFA announced that an alliance between 16 South Pacific Forum nations, including Australia and New Zealand, had resulted in the develop ment of the world’s most advanced fishing vessel monitoring system (VMS) to date.

“The Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) revolutionises monitoring of commercial fishing activity in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of FFA member countries by using a global satellite system that enables the speedy identification of fishing vessels, their current and potential activities, licens ing details, and other relevant information,” an FFA statement said.

“All licensed fishing vessels, fish carri ers and support craft will be fitted with an automatic location communicator (ALCj or satellite transceiver device that feeds data relating to location, speed and direction back to the FEA’s headquarters at Honiara, Solomon Islands.

“At the FFA, a computer known as the

VMS decision engine analyzes the position data from each vessel using a set of pre-deter mined rules and dis tributes this informa tion to the VMS sta tion at the country in which the vessel is operating. At the FFA member coun try VMS station, the position data for each vessel is dis played against elec tronic maps of the country’s FEZ,” the agency said.

FFA Director Victorio Uherbelau.

explained, “The

western and central Pacific is host to the most productive tuna fishing grounds in the world, with annual catches consistently around 1.3 million metric tons with an esti mated value in 1995 of 1.7 billion US dol lars. The tuna resources of the region, if managed effectively, are capable of gener ating sustainable revenues for FEA member countries over time”.

At the 29th South Pacific Forum in

Palikir, FSM, island leaders endorsed the VMS concept for FFA member countries.

This issue has proved to be the biggest stumbling block in negotiations with DWFNs, but Nakayama told the UN General Assembly that VMS would be pro gressively implemented for those DWFN vessels operating in the exclusive econom ic zones of FFA countries.

“We believe that requiring the use of VMS is currently the most effective and cost efficient method available for monitor ing and surveillance of fishing activities in our respective EEZs, and is therefore a vital tool in our efforts to combat illegal fishing activities,” he said.

Winning the VMS debate is an issue that one of the major players in the region, Australia, considers important.

It was important enough for the Australian foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer to push during a December visit to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and Fiji.

According to French news agency, Agence France-Presse, although the coun tries, as FFA members, had recently agreed

on a vessel monitoring system for the region, there was pressure from some DWFNs against the use of the VMS sys tem.

“They don’t want to be monitored and, in some cases, they have used the threat that they will withdraw from the zone of a par ticular country or they have demanded that the cost of installing the equipment be deducted from the licenses they paid,” AFP

quoted an Australian foreign affairs

spokesperson as saying.

According to the report, Australia is

pushing for satellite-monitoring equipment

to be a licensing condition for foreign fish ing vessels, but the proposed system needs the full support of all island nations.

Most Pacific Island operators have recognised that the future potential of the industry is huge but to be sustainable, ade quate controls are necessary.

Ask any island operator if they accept the idea of using VMS in the region, and they will, more often than not, say yes - but security of information is important.

As long as adequate controls are put in place to ensure that the general information given through VMS, such as one particular

company’s favourite fishing ground,

remains confidential, most private sector operators do not reject it.

“It is the companies that are doing some thing wrong that should be worried,” says one operator, “but if you are doing the right thing, then it’s a good way of keeping track of your fleet as well”.

One island country that has toughed up

its controls is the Solomons which declared that at the end of May this year, current fish ing licences for for eign vessels would not be automatical ly renewed.

Instead, Solomon Islands fisheries’ minister, Dr. Steven Aumanu, said, new foreign fishing ves sel licenses will be issued only if the applicants meet new criteria approved by the Foreign Investment Board.

According to Pacnews, the criteria

include requirements pertaining to equity,

flag of the vessel, number of Solomon islanders employed, use of local goods and services and onshore investments.

Dr. Aumanu said his ministry has also decided to reduce the maximum quota allo cations on tuna catches in the country’s waters. The current quota of 128,500 met

ric tons is viewed by the government as

“exceedingly unsustainable”.

The issue of sustainability is one that greatly concerns Pacific Island govern ments and operators, for many of whom fisheries may be the only lifeline for eco nomic survival.

The South Pacific Forum continually highlights the need for sustainable catch levels for all fisheries and to exploit oppor tunities for value-added processing thus maximising the benefit to Forum members.

But as Fiji’s deputy minister for fish eries, Lagisoa Delana, told a recent AGP

EU Industrial Partnership meeting in Nadi, “this is not easy to achieve because our efforts have been constrained by the lack of capital, technology and expertise, and the absence of suitable markets. It has meant that someone else has to do the fishing' (mostly foreigners) while we gradually develop our capacity, in all aspects of the tuna industry”.

According to the FFA, a number of con straints remain in many FFA island coun tries that actively discourage potential fish eries’ investors.

Chief amongst these was the “general

shortage of Pacific islanders with the skills required to manage and develop the fish eries industry, ranging from the skills required by the private sector to maintain an operation (such as welding, refrigera tion, mechanics, crewing, and on-shore management), to the skills needed in the public sector (such as fisheries manage ment, economic and legal skills),” the FFA says.

In Samoa, the industry has grown from being virtually non-existent in 1994, to a situation where it is the country’s number one export earner. According to John Luff,

the managing director of APIA Export Fish Packers Limited, fresh tuna volumes out of Samoa last year totaled more than 400 tonnes.

He said though, that the industry had only three 24 and 18 metre vessels with the majority of the catch being brought in by about 300 small boats.

This has presented some very serious constraints for the industry because the range of such small boats means that it is

unable to operate in more than 10 per cent of the country’s FEZ.

However, Luff says operators have gone a

long way to improving

the capacity to hold products and there has been enormous capital growth in on-shore facilities.

In other Pacific island countries, howev er, lack of capital has

restricted development.

In Tonga, where local investors are in

direct competition with the government, there has been minimal growth in the indus try. According to Leonhard Niit, the man aging director of Maritime Projects CO (Tonga) Limited, there are four companies doing tuna longlining at the moment, but access to capital is a problem. Most of the operators started small and gradually built up resources.

Fresh fish, because it fetches a higher price on the market, is the target, he says.

However, a substantial part of the catch is large albacore tuna that is sent overseas to canneries.

For future developments, Niit suggests that the government invest in a medium scale processing plant, which will cater for the needs of the island operators who would not be able to find the capital for such a pro ject. The industry in Tonga is restricted from further development because of the economic climate in the country at the moment, he says, but this has been com

pounded by infrastructural problems.

“Over the last six months, there have been enormous freight problems. The infra structure cannot support further growth,”

Niit says.

But this problem is not restricted to Tonga, and is an issue that has to be addressed in all Pacific Island countries.

The FFA says that the infrastructure needs in several countries are limited and blames it on a lack of focus by governments.

“The lack of a focus in terms of future fisheries development needs within govern ment results in inadequate planning for the industry’s future infrastructure require ments,” the FFA said.

In Papua New Guinea, for example, freight capacity both internally and exter nally are limiting development.

Maurice Brownjohn, the managing director of Latitude 8 Pty Limited, says there is still no in-country freight capacity although there is a major need for it.

The one quick way to get goods to the international airport or major shipping areas is by airfreight but this, he says, is expensive and limited to negligible amounts on Air Niugini flights within the country.

As well, he says, of the majority of flights out of the country, only two have connections to get into Europe, which holds major potential as a new market for the country’s fish.

On these flights, fish products have to compete with other major export goods for airfreight space.

Grahame Southwick, manager of The Fiji Fish Marketing Group, who has already sent trial shipments of tuna into Europe, says that the freight problem is one that even Fiji operators have difficulty with.

Because of its developed tourism indus try, Fiji has the benefit of many internation al flights through the country. In fact, of all the countries in the region, Fiji is consid ered to have the best transport links to export markets.

According to a paper by consultants Robert Lee and Chris Lightfoot, New

Caledonia has an established industry, sup plying Japan and its local market. French Polynesia, they say, is established, fishing mainly albacore for fresh sales and canning, while Micronesia has a large fishery export

ing mainly to Japan.

In Samoa, they see fisheries as an emerging industry, focused mainly on in shore fishery with limited infrastructure and transportation. Tonga is established with small, fair infrastructure and trans

portation. Of all the countries that they rated, Fiji’s established fishing industry seemed to have the better deal, with the best transport links in the region and reasonable infrastructure.

But Fiji’s chilled fish exports have to compete with all the other exports that leave Fiji’s shores such as garments, processed agricultural products and even canned fish. The situa tion is one that irks many

exporters, whose sashimi grade tuna some times misses the plane because of lack of

air-cargo space.

These problems are an everyday reality to people who work in the fishing industry in the Pacific.

The fact of the matter is that without any significant change in the availability of air freight space for refrigerated containers, the Pacific fresh tuna export industry may not develop much more than it has now.

For the frozen fish market, including canneries in the United States, Australia, Europe and Asia, the potential for develop ment is substantial - but this too may depend on changes to shipping routes and more frequent schedules throughout the region. With its relatively small population size compared to the expanse of ocean that the Pacific occupies, it does not seem pos sible that island nations will deplete their valuable fisheries resources.

The area for concern, for many officials, is when island countries give up this right to outsiders, without adequate controls and with minimal returns.

It is this situation that Pacific Island countries, operators and international legis lation have teamed up to fight. With unwa vering commitment to this end, the winner can only be the Pacific. ■

Smoked tuna from a factory in Fiji, before being packed for export