Pacific fisheries observers redeploying from next month
Da Nang, Vietnam: The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission has approved the redeployment of independent fisheries observers in its purse seine fishery from January 1.
Senior commission executives confirmed the decision on Thursday afternoon midway through their annual meeting which is being hosted by Vietnam in Da Nang.
Prior to the pandemic the WCPFC - also known as the Pacific Tuna Commission - had boasted 100 percent observer coverage in the fishery but this dropped to zero in 2020 with the suspension of the program due to the impacts of Covid-19.
The World Wide Fund for Nature’s Western and Central Pacific Tuna Programme Manager Bubba Cook
is taking part in this year’s commission meeting.
He welcomed the decision.
“I think it’s very important to have observers on board these vessels, because they are the eyes and ears of our management agencies and our enforcement agencies,” Cook said.
“They play an incredibly important role in getting us information that ultimately contributes to good stock assessments, good science, and also monitoring control and surveillance of the fleets at sea.”
It is important to stress that the observers being redeployed from the first of January are only returning to purse seine vessels and not longliners - the other type of
fishing vessel the commission concerns itself with in the Pacific.
Unlike the 100 percent observer coverage achieved on purse seiners the commission had struggled to meet its own five percent observer coverage conservation measure pre-covid.
The executive director of the commission Feleti Teo said the dynamics are the same now as they were then.
“Our longline observer coverage is always a difficult one. And that’s why the commission is moving very quickly on electronic monitoring. So that at least there is an alternative option to provide the data gaps on long line,” Teo said.