SOME CHRONOLOGY:

The slide from a profitable, high employment industry in the 80s, to its demise in 2000, is guided by the following timeline which Mr Southwick provided: .

1979

Born in Suva in 1944, Mr Southwick worked in the Australian fishing sector for close to a decade before he returned to Fiji with the first 100 per cent-owned and controlled tuna boat to catch tuna for Levuka-based Pacific Fishing Company (PAFCO).

■ ■ ■ Late 80s

The great international skipjack tuna fishery collapsed from overproduction and far too many boats fishing.

The international price for skipjack tuna fell by 50 per cent, well below what a boat needed to survive.

The then Fijian-Government owned, IKA Corporation, went bust as did the international Japanese fleet working with IKA. The Japanese company that owned PAFCO sold out to the Fijian Government, which led PAFCO to a 30-year history of losses. At least 50 per cent of the international tuna fleet went bankrupt.

1990

Fiji Fish was born, a child of the original Wasawasa Fisheries Ltd. Fiji Fish pioneered the domestic tuna long line fishery and grew its fleet from one vessel to 12, investing heavily in a shorebased factory that employed approximately 350 Fijians.

The decade leading up to

2000 were good years, with the domestic fleet growing slowly to about 30 to 35 vessels.

“This was for two reasons,” Mr Southwick said.

“The fleet of 30 to 35 was being sustained as the catch rates were high and stable, and stock replacement constantly replenished the harvest.

“This was a virgin stock, untouched much from the beginning of time, and the harvesting and recovery of the stock was in balance.” Unfortunately, with many players seeing a successful fishery, there grew a heavy demand for fisheries to issue more and more licenses, Mr Southwick said.

“It wasn’t long before the effects of excess boats began to be felt, and catch rates declined by the day,” he said.

“The industry went into rapid decline and 112 boats soon became 80, then 70, and the ministry watched as the catch numbers fell daily, to a point where there were only about 30 to 36 boats left.”

A couple of years, with 30 to 36 boats, saw the stock start to rebuild and catches improve, Mr Southwick said.

“Upon seeing this, and again offering no scientific basis, the ministry started to increase the re-issue of more licenses,” Mr Southwick claimed.

“Just when we thought the ministry might have come to its senses, they turned around and started the decline once more. “By this time, upon advice from the Ministry, the Cabinet decided to create from out of nowhere, a total allowable catch of some 15,000 metric tonnes.

“This with no scientific study of basis, just arbitrary figures, and proceed to issue more licenses in pursuit of this mirage.

“The new license limit was set at 70, and as catches continued to drop, reduced further to 60, where it stands today, as a monument to mismanagement and stupidity.”

In a twist of interesting development, a new phenomenon emerged, as more local boats went bankrupt. “Chinese heavily-subsidised boats, demanding and receiving the licenses they needed, filled the local fishing industry,” Mr Southwick said.