The United States, already under criticism for its fisheries policies in the Pacific, on Friday declined to support unprecedented tuna conservation measures taken by eight island nations, reserving for itself the right to be the only nation to fish in a body of tuna-rich waters the size of India. The measures are designed to preserve the world’s last big stocks of tuna from the overfishing that depleted them everywhere else. (See Nature’s coverage last week).
The measures include closing the area to industrial purse-seine vessels (right), which scoop whole schools of tuna in their huge nets, in order to stem the decline of the bigeye tuna, the most overfished and valuable species. Scientists say adult females are down to 17% of their original, pre-fishing numbers (https://www.wcpfc.int/node/2937. The other measure is a reduction to 28,469 fishing days from 36,624 for all ships except American ones.
While other nations, some under protest, are reducing the amount of fish they take to avoid a catastrophic collapse of the stocks, the United States fleet operates under a unique treaty with the Pacific nations in whose waters they fish that exempts them from these measures.
“Now we’re allowed to fish these waters,” said the chief delegate, Charles Karnella of NOAA, at the end of a five-day meeting of the international body that regulates tuna fishing in the region, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission.
The treaty expires and two and half years, and Karnella did not say whether the U.S. fleet would continue until then. To stop earlier, he pointed out, “We would need a regulatory procedure.”
Sylvester Pokajam of Papua New-Guinea, the spokesman for the eight island countries, responded to those comments at a closing press conference by saying, “We will be very disappointed if the United States does not cooperate with us.”
Whether or not the U.S. abides by the closure is part of the negotiations to renew treaty negotiating the treaty, Karnella said.
The measures were taken earlier this year by a grouping of eight island nations that sell licenses to foreign fleets of a total of about 225 purse-seiners belonging to mostly to such nations as Taiwan, Japan, Spain and the United States. As of January 1, those licenses will include clauses that prevent the fleets from fishing in a 3.2 million square km, m-shaped area of international waters south of Hawaii.
Two years ago, the United States had strongly backed the closure by the same group of eight, called the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, of two pockets of international waters further west totaling 1.3 million square kilometers. As a result, the members of the tuna Commission, which include the eight as well as distant fishing nations, unanimously approved the closure, along with other measures to stem the decline of the world’s last major stocks of tuna. And the U.S. has abided by that closure, which started this past January.
This year, according to fisheries scientists, the situation of the tuna has worsened. Not only have the 2008 measures failed to have any beneficial effect on the tuna, the total catch rose by over 30 percent.
Still, commission members South Korea and the European Union voiced strong opposition to the fresh measure, which New Zealand supported while the United States remained silent. Since the commission operates on the basis of unanimity, the measure was simply pushed to next year, along with a series of other proposals to curb overfishing of bigeye and yellowfin tuna and the accidental mortality of whales and dolphins.
The United States now has 40 ships in the Pacific. About a dozen are based in the eastern Pacific and bring their catch to a cannery in American Samoa. The others are Taiwanese ships operating entirely near Asia that were allowed to take up the U.S. flag a few years ago, which frees the Taiwanese vessels from the constraints the Nauru group imposes on its clients. The U.S. benefits from the move have never been explained, and the U.S. representatives have declined to discuss the matter.
The reflagging has been strongly denounced by the Nauru group as another way to increase the U.S. tuna catch when other nations are being forced to cut back.
The treaty, signed before even the tuna commission was created, also has been denounced as unfair by most island nations and will either be modified to allow the island nations to control the catch of the American ships.
In testimony to Congress, William Gibbons-Fly, director of the State Department’s Office of Marine Conservation, said the treaty serves “as a forum for cooperating with the Pacific Island parties on conservation and management of the island’s fish stocks, fisheries enforcement cooperation and other issues.”
But, he added, the whole package is “dependent on the extension of the treaty.” In other words, he suggested, if the treaty is not extended, the U.S. will cease all aid to and cooperation with the 17 countries.
“It’s completely out of line for the Obama Administration to use strong-arm tactics to negotiate a commercial treaty with a group of tiny, friendly nations,” said Greenpeace oceans campaigner Phil Kline.
Story and photo by Christopher Pala