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Islands compete to host fisheries HQ

By Giff Johnson

The Marshall Islands thinks that it’s about time that a major secretariat in the region be based north of the equator. The government is hoping that the fact that all the major agencies are based in the South Pacific will aid its bid to host the secretariat of the soon-to-be-established Pacific commission that will manage and regulate commercial fishing in the region.

Resources and development minister John Silk reiterated the Marshalls’ interest in being the home-base for the secretariat during a meeting of the Multilateral High Level Conference on fisheries’ management in Honolulu recently. A treaty is expected to be signed this August in Fiji, which will establish a commission for conservation and management of tuna resources in the Pacific.

“The Micronesian area has never hosted the secretariat for an important regional organisation,” Silk said.“lt’s only fair that we get our share. The Marshall Islands is ready to host it”

The Marshall Islands, which in 1997 hosted the first, kick-off meeting of the group known as the “Multilateral High Level Conference on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Central and Western Pacific,” was the first country to make a bid for the secretariat, Silk said.

But the Marshalls is competing with about eight other islands that also would like to have the commission inside their borders.

Apart from the jobs that would become available because of basing a secretariat here, Silk said there would be other spin-off benefits, including more fisheries’ meetings being held in Majuro because of the location of the secretariat. ■