Overfishing pushes tuna to the brink

By PAUL OATES

The Total Demise of the Tuna (Mk2)

The total demise of the tuna,

Could well nigh just be sooner,

If some overfish,

To put your tuna on their dish,

And create just an empty Neptuna.

Like many others today I’m contemplating a small can of overseas produced tuna to spread on my sandwich for lunch. That act alone puts me at the top of a food chain that extends far out into the Pacific Ocean. Yet is this the real food chain and if so, can it be effectively managed?

Let’s examine this part of the food chain as we know it. Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is absorbed by microscopic algae (phytoplankton) in the oceans that are then eaten by plankton. Plankton are then eaten by small baitfish and sardines. Sardines are then eaten by larger carnivorous fish like tuna. Tuna are then caught and eaten by humans. But is the food chain actually a food cycle? After all, humans then produce carbon dioxide.

Tuna are pelagic fish that travel vast distances in the world’s oceans. While the fish are mobile, they do tend to stick to fixed migration patterns that roughly equate to the seasons in each hemisphere.

Each ocean (Atlantic, Indian and Pacific) seems to have its own particular varieties of tuna and there are a number of different species. By far the most desirable species of tuna are Bluefin, then Yellowfin and then species like Skipjack seemingly coming in a definite third.

Given that tuna range across many national maritime borders and the open ocean, there can be no defined ownership of this resource. Nevertheless, the areas where tuna spawn and grow are often within national boundaries and this aspect could be better investigated and policed if there were resources made available and and an appropriate national will. Recent claims that a tuna spawning area in PNG could be affected by the effluent being discharged by some mining companies seem to have been dismissed by authorities.

It goes without saying that all important national food resources should be protected and managed so that the resource is used in a sustainable manner and available for future generations. Yet have the available lessons of the world's tuna fishing up until this time been fully understood and appreciated?

Nations in the South Pacific have previously been so concerned about the sustainability of tuna stocks that they imposed self fishing limits on their national fisheries. The PNG Fisheries Department previously claimed that they would not allow any increase in tuna fishing until a detailed investigation and research had been carried out on the sustainability of national tuna stocks. Yet how could any one nation ensure sustainability of tuna resources without a comprehensive international investigation and agreed regional policing?

Tuna fishing is about to expand exponentially in PNG. Four new foreign owned canneries are being built with much heralding of how this will benefit PNG and provide employment.

However who exactly benefits from this dramatic increase? Whose food chain are we actually talking about here? What has caused this sudden interest in PNG tuna? Has PNG conducted the promised investigation into sustainable tuna fishing prior to approving these new tuna canneries and what were the published results?

Does PNG have the available resources and expertise to effectively monitor tuna resources and the ability and national will power to restrict over fishing if fish stocks become severely depleted?

The foreign companies currently building tuna processing plants in PNG to harvest local tuna stocks are there for logical reasons. Tuna stocks in other parts of the world have been severely depleted and it has been claimed, some species of tuna have been overfished to extinction levels. Could this be the real reason PNG has suddenly become a desirable place to fish for tuna?

It seems a pity to rain on PNG’s parade at a time when employment and the diversification of national export industries are so vital. Yet amid all the hoopla and hyperbole, it seems awfully apparent that the PNG people may have again been asked to accept short term gain for long term pain?

So is PNG’s food chain really being managed? Perhaps PNG new Fisheries Minister or his Department might like to elaborate on the methodology being applied?

________________________-

Atungistap we bihain?

Lae set to become tuna capital of Pacific

By MALUM NALU

Lae is set to become the tuna hub of the Pacific with four large multi-million tuna plants to be established at Malahang over the next couple of months.

While progress of the much-mooted Pacific Marine Industrial Zone outside Madang has somewhat slowed down because of landowner and non-government organisation issues, it is all systems go in Lae, with supportive landowners and provincial government.

Four large tuna plants – Majestic Seafoods, Dong Wong, NambawanSeafoods and Hali Sheng – are set to make Lae their base.

Majestic Seafood’s’ K80 million new tuna canning  is facility expected to be opened over the next two months and will create at least 2,000 jobs for local people.

When in full production, it will create at least 5,000 jobs altogether for local people.

In the first phase of the project, in which 200 metric tonnes of tuna a day will be produced, up to 3,000 people will be employed, and in the second phase, in which 380 metric tonnes of tuna a day will be produced, up to 6,000 people will be employed.

Majestic Seafoods is a company put up by three major companies composed of Frabelle Fishing Corporation of Philippinnes, operating in PNG as Frabelle (PNG) Ltd; Philippine-based Century Canning Corporation; and Thailand-based Thai Union Corporation, a subsidiary of Thai Union Frozen Products PCL (TUF).

Thai Union is the second-largest tuna canner in the world, while Century Canning is the biggest canner in the Philippines.

Dong Wong is a Korean company; NambawanSeafoods is made up of Trans Pacific Journey Corporation and TSP Marine of the Philippines; and Hali Sheng is from Mainland China.

All three will be involved in tuna loining.

These add to the two already established canneries in Lae, Malaysian-owned International Food Corporation which produces the popular Besta canned mackerel, and Frabelle of the Philippines.

Morobe provincial administrator KemasTomala told The National in Lae that these developments, coupled with the US$700 million Lae port development, would make Lae the tuna capital of the Pacific and one of the largest tuna centres in the world.

“You can say that Lae is becoming the hub of fishing in PNG and in the Pacific,” he said.

“Yes, the fishing industry is interested in Lae and Morobe provincial government, provincial administration, and land owners are doing everything possible to ensure that the industry prospers in Lae and provides employment

“We are grateful that the national government is working with the Asian Development Bank to develop the new port in Lae.

“That will help us in our bid to make Lae the fishing hub of the Pacific.

“We are already moving in that direction.

“The biggest thing in PNG’s favor (tuna) is the access to the European Union market.

“All the investors are coming to PNG because of the access given to PNG by the European Union.”

Kemala said the tuna plants would also benefit other spin-off industries.

“We will be expecting other new investors,” he said.

“Apart from the canning of tuna, there will be a lot more downstream processing.

“This includes manufacturing of cans, packaging and other support that will come along with the tuna canneries.

“In a lot of ways, we are grateful that commercial investors have shown confidence in the commercial environment in Lae.”

New Morobe Governor Kelly Naru welcomed the latest inclusion to Lae’s commercial scene -   Majestic Seafoods’ K80 million new tuna cannery outside Lae, - which will employ at least 5,000 people when in full operation.

“My own view is that I approach the growth and development of the city and province with an open-door policy,” Naru told The National.

“I’m a team player and I want to allow economic growth, and investment, as part and parcel of this city and province.

“I’m happy with the fisheries projects and others coming into the province because they will create economic growth, employment, and cut down law and order problems.

“I believe in investments and I believe there’s a lot of potential to attract all different kinds of investment.”

Papua New Guinea currently boasts the largest fisheries zone in the Pacific at an area of 2.4 million sq km.

 The country landed 749,000 tonnes of tuna in 2010, some 17% of the world’s catch.

Under the EU deal, PNG’s canned tuna has been granted permission to enter the EU market duty free, and imports to the continent − which reached 15,600 tonnes in 2010 − are expected to double in this year.

 Papua New Guinea has also been permitted to export fish to the EU from outside its own territorial waters, allowing investors to source fish elsewhere and process it in PNG.

New K80 million tuna cannery to be opened in Lae

By MALUM NALU

MajeticSeafoods’ K80 million new tuna canning facility at Malahang outside Lae is expected to be opened over the next two months and will create 2,000-3,000 jobs for local people.

When in full production, it will create 5,000-6,000 jobs altogether for local people.

In the first phase of the project, in which 200 metric tonnes of tuna a day will be produced, up to 3,000 people will be employ, and in the second phase, in which 380 metric tonnes of tuna a day will be produced, up to 6,000 people will be employed.

Majestic Seafoods is a company put up by three major companies composed of Frabelle Fishing Corporation of Philippinnes, operating in PNG as Frabelle (PNG) Ltd; Philippine-based Century Canning Corporation; and Thailand-based Thai Union Corporation, a subsidiary of Thai Union Frozen Products PCL (TUF).

Thai Union is the second-largest tuna canner in the world, while Century Canning is the biggest canner in the Philippines

Operations and project manager Cristito Andrade said work on the project started in September 2010 with the first phase nearing completion.

“This will be the biggest canning project in the country,” he said.

“We will be producing canned tuna and processed loins.

“The project cost around K80 million.

“The major components are the building itself for the plant.

“For the first phase of our project, we will employ 2,000-3,000 local people.

“In the second phase of the project, we will employ 5,000-6,000 local people.

“We will increase production from 200 metric tonnes a day to 380 metric tonnes a day.

“We are targeting to open the plant in the last quarter of this year, around October or November.”

Andrade said recruitment had started early so that women could be trained on how to process tuna.

“Our human resources department has started hiring local women because we want to train them before actual production starts,” he said

“Eighty per cent of the catch will come from PNG waters while 20% will come from other suppliers.

“It will be unloaded at our main port of Lae.

“From the boat, it will be transported in insulated trucks to Malahang.

“We will sell 80% of our produce overseas and 20% on the local market.

“Most will go to the European Union, while the rest will go the the USA, Middle East and Japan.”

Andrade said the benefits would be enormous for the local economy.

“It will greatly benefit the local economy,” he said.

“Firstly, the labour, in which many local people will be hired.

“Then there are the spin-off businesses which will emerge as a result of this project.”

Posted by MalumNalu at 8/14/2012 11:03:00 AM0 comments Links to this post

Governor, administrator keen on investments in Morobe

By MALUM NALU

Morobe Governor Kelly Naru and provincial administrator KemasTomala are both keen on bringing in more investments into Lae, the industrial centre of Papua New Guinea, and the province as a whole

Naru and Tomala said the investment climate had never been better, especially with development of the Lae port and other resource developments such as the giant Wafi-Golpu mining prospect, and Morobe was assured of a good future.

They especially welcomed the latest inclusion to Lae’s commercial scene.  Majestic Seafoods’ K80 million new tuna cannery outside Lae, which will employ at least 5,000 people when in full operation.

“My own view is that I approach the growth and development of the city and province with an open-door policy,” Naru told The National.

“I’m a team player and I want to allow economic growth, and investment, as part and parcel of this city and province.

“I’m happy with the fisheries projects and others coming into the province because they will create economic growth, employment, and cut down law and order problems.

“I believe in investments and I believe there’s a lot of potential to attract all different kinds of investment.

“My administration is happy to work with and talk with investors who want to do business in Lae.”

Tomala predicted a bright future for Lae and Morobe province over the next 100 years, especially with the development of the Lae port and Wafi-Golpu.

“The economy of Morobe in general is looking good,” he told The National.

“In terms of the next 100 years or so, it will be a very bright future, based on current trends in business investments in Lae.

“We’re looking at the fishing industry, general downstream processing in Lae, and manufacturing industries coming in.

“We also have the new port coming in, which will propel a lot of investments coming in.

“We’re also looking at the mining sector, especially the Wafi-Golpu projects which comes on stream in 2014-2015.

“This will be major economic investments that will trigger off a lot of commercial investments in Lae.

“At the moment, we’re advised that it (Wafi-Golpu) will be around for 40-60 years, so this is going to be a major investment in its own right.

“This will trigger off a lot of commercial investments in Lae.”

Kemala said economic activities were also planned for the Markham Valley including agri-business, power generation and others.

He said companies from neighbouring provinces such as Madang were using Lae to conduct business as well as use the Lae port, which augured well for the city and province.

"Japan's huge appetite for tuna will take the most sought-after stocks to the brink of commercial extinction unless fisheries agree on more rigid quotas".^[5]

Japan's Fisheries Research Agency counters that Australian and New Zealand tuna fishing companies under-report their total catches of southern bluefin tuna and ignore internationally mandated total allowable catch totals.^[6]

Sean Dorney reported this story on Sunday, June 26, 2011 08:20:00

ELIZABETH JACKSON: In the Pacific, the Solomon Islands Government has ordered all tuna fishing fleets operating in its 200-mile exclusive economic zone to stop fishing. It is a dramatic move. But it falls in line with regulations introduced this year by a group of eight PacificIsland countries aimed at both protecting their tuna stocks and getting greater value out of their biggest joint economic resource.

Our Pacific correspondent, Sean Dorney, who has been in Honiara, sent us this report.

SEAN DORNEY: If you look at a map of the massive area covered by the linked exclusive economic zones of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Tuvalu and Kiribati you are looking at a significant part of the globe.

You are certainly looking at a huge swathe of the Pacific Ocean. These eight countries, without any help from international aid donors or any advice from Australia or New Zealand, are determined to control the fishing of tuna that swim in those waters. The group is known as the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, the PNA.

ADRIAN WICKHAM: The PNA is really doing some fine things now and, especially with regards to managing and conserving the stock.

SEAN DORNEY: Adrian Wickham is the CEO of the Solomon Island-based fishing company, National Fisheries Development Limited, which operates five purse seiner fishing vessels.

ADRIAN WICKHAM: Those of us who've been in it for a long time, I've been in it 22 years this year, we're there for the long haul and we want the resource to be there for the long haul as well.

So with the amount of vessels and the capacity that we have now in the Pacific something drastic needs to be done and the limiting of effort by way of the Vessel Day Scheme we've been fully supportive of even though, you might have heard, the Solomons has run out of days this year.

SEAN DORNEY: The Vessel Day Scheme is a PNA imitative whereby the eight countries decide how many days tuna fishing vessels will be allowed to spend hauling in tuna from their waters in a given year. Each country has a specific allocation of days which they auction.

GORDON DARCY LILO: This year we have a total of 2,146 days, Vessel Day Scheme.

SEAN DORNEY: Gordon Darcy Lilo is the Solomon Islands finance minister.

GORDON DARCY LILO: But as it is right now we have exhausted it before the end of the calendar year. One reason could be that we may have priced it very cheaply and therefore everybody just came rushing in to fish in our waters.

SEAN DORNEY: The Solomons has used up all its days for 2011 with the year less than half gone. Adrian Wickham from the Solomon Islands National Fisheries Development company says that the tuna fishing in the Solomons has been exceptionally good this year.

ADRIAN WICKHAM: The highly migratory nature of the fishery tells you that some years you're going to have good fishing in your waters and in other waters there won't be.

But a very funny phenomena happened this year. As you might have known it was a La Nina year which has just ended. And typically in a La Nina year we shouldn't have tuna in our waters. They should be further north. But, you know, things are changing. Climate and the environmental factors are at play here. And, yeah, this year was a bit different.

SEAN DORNEY: With no more Vessel Days left, the Solomons Government has ordered the fishing for tuna to stop. It will be able to let the fleets resume if it can buy days so far unused belonging to other members of the PNA, the Parties to the Nauru Agreement. The finance minister, Mr Darcy Lilo.

GORDON DARCY LILO: We have been guided by the secretariat of the PNA that the Marshalls would be interested to sell their days to us. We will be buying up to about a thousand days from the Marshalls, the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

SEAN DORNEY: The rapid run out of fishing days in the Solomons has led the Government to look at whether next year it should put a much higher reserve price on its fishing days, now commonly called the VDS, for Vessel Day Scheme.

GORDON DARCY LILO: We have set up an inter-ministerial task force to look into all other sources of revenue that we have. And one is this on the Vessel Day Scheme. So that next year we will start to look into it but, you know, we have to lay the foundation as to how we are going to do it this year. Once we get the valuation of the VDS then it will be opened up for tender for everybody to compete for the VDS at that price.

SEAN DORNEY: This Pacific Islands country initiative has impressed dedicated fishermen from the region like Adrian Wickham.

ADRIAN WICKHAM: Those eight countries have within their waters something like 30 per cent of the world's tuna resource. If the PNA can work hard and look after that resource we're going to have it here for the long term and that's the main objective here.

Tuna species under threat

• From: AFP
• July 08, 2011 9:57AM

Many of the world's tuna species are under threat. Source: The Advertiser

MOST of the world's species of tuna are urgently in need of protection, the reference organisation for the conservation status of Earth's animals and plants said.

Five of eight tuna species are now threatened or nearly threatened with extinction due to overfishing, according to the Red List of Threatened Species, compiled by the Swiss-based International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

One of the species in most trouble is Australia's valuable southern bluefin tuna.

The report is being released ahead of a July 11-15 meeting in La Jolla, California of the world's five regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs), intergovernmental groups set up to insure that tuna fisheries remain sustainable.

Southern bluefin tuna stocks have already crashed with little hope of recovery, resulting in a "critically endangered" status, the IUCN reported.

Atlantic bluefin - with populations in both the east and west fished to the edge of viability - is now officially "endangered."

All bluefin tuna species "are susceptible to collapse under continued excessive fishing pressure," said Ken Carpenter, a professor at OldDominionUniversity in Norfolk, Virginia, and the head of the IUCN's Marine Biodiversity Unit.

Other tuna species under sharp pressure from high-tech factory ships that comb international waters in search of ever-dwindling stocks include bigeye, classified as vulnerable, along with yellowfin and albacore, both ranked as "near threatened."

"This is the first time that fishery scientists, ichthyologists (fish specialists) and conservationists have come together to jointly produce an assessment of the threat facing a commercially important group of fishes," said Bruce Collette, a senior scientist at the US National Marine Fisheries Service and head of the IUCN's Tuna and Billfish Specialist Group.

All told, the new peer-reviewed classification, based on a study published in the US journal Science, assessed 61 species of tunas, bonitas, mackerels and billfishes, a group that includes swordfish and marlins.

Among billfishes, blue and white marlins are deemed vulnerable, while striped marlin has been classified as near-threatened.

Up to 90 percent of many large, open-water fish have been depleted by industrial-scale fishing over the last half-century, and marine scientists warn that continued harvesting could lead to irreversible declines of some species.

Because many are at the top of the food chain, their disappearance could also disrupt delicately balanced ecosystems.

In the case of tuna species, "the most efficient way to avoid collapse is to shut down the fisheries until stocks are rebuilt to healthy levels," the researchers concluded.

"Scientific findings should not be discarded in order to maintain short-term profit," they added, a clear jab at RFMOs that have consistently ignored the advice of their own scientific committees in the past.

Five main species of tuna make up the annual worldwide catch of 4.0 to 4.5 million tonnes.

Destined mainly for supermarket shelves, skipjack (Katsuwonuspelamis) accounts for 60 percent of the total.

Yellowfin (Thunnusalbacares) and bigeye (Thunnusobesus) comprise 24 and 10 percent of the global tuna market respectively.

Thunnusalalunga, better known as albacore, follows with five percent, while Atlantic Bluefin (Thunnusthynnus), highly prized in Japan for sashimi and sushi, is less than one percent.

Susan Lieberman, director of international policy for the Washington-based Pew Environment Group, welcomed the announcement.

"These results are yet another warning light that some species of tunas are dangerously over-exploited and others may be heading in that direction," she said.

"The study reinforces what marine conservationists have known for decades-that there are negative consequences to poor fisheries management. Around the world, tuna stocks are in serious decline, with too many boats chasing too few fish, along with widespread illegal fishing in several ocean areas. "

AFP

PNG leads Pacific in tuna catch

Source: 

The National - Thursday, September 8th 2011

By ANCILLA WRAKUALE
PAPUA New Guinea has the highest tuna catch among the Parties to the Nauru Agreement member countries.
PNG stakes claim to 54% of the total catch and 34% of the catch from the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.
Fishing Industry Association president and managing director of RD Tuna Canners, in Madang, Pedro Castillo Celso presented the status and trade trends of the industry in PNG at the third Pacific tuna forum in Palau yesterday.
The PNA member countries contribute 32% of the world tuna supply and 64% of Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO).
He said the average annual catch of tuna in PNG during the past five years was around 500,000 metric tonnes.
PNG’s tuna catch for 2010 was 749,000 tonnes, which was about 17% of the world catch.
Average estimate catch of tuna in the waters of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) countries – PNG, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Palau and Tuvalu – was 1,400,000 tonnes or about 32% of the world tuna supply and 64% of the WCPO catch.
Celso said at the current price of US$1,800 per tonne, the raw value of tuna catch worldwide was about US$7.7 billion.
The estimated value of raw catch of tuna in the PNA region was about US$2.5 billion, while the estimated raw value of tuna catch in PNG was about US$1.35 billion, which if totally value added, could reach
US$2.7 billion or K6.4 billion.
He said purse seine fishing in PNG had plenty of players and appeared to be vibrant despite challenges, while the long line industry needed to be revived.
He said on-shore processing was active, with ongoing expansion and needed to be supported by the government.

Overfishing pushes tuna to the brink: experts

• From: AFP
• September 09, 2012 2:08AM

•  

GLOBAL tuna stocks are fast reaching the limits of fishing sustainability, decimated by an absence of comprehensive, science-based catch limits, conservation experts warned.

Five of the world's eight tuna species are already classified as threatened or nearly threatened with extinction, according to the Red List of Threatened Species compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

At the IUCN's World Conservation Congress currently underway in South Korea's southern Jeju Island, experts said partial quotas currently in place were inadequate and uninformed.

"The problem is, there is lack of science-based catch limits to ensure effective management and conservation," said Amanda Nickson, Director of Global Tuna Conservation at the Pew Environment Group.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

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• Whistleblower reveals whale shark slaughterPerth Now, 18 Nov 2011
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• Sustainable tinned tuna revealedPerth Now, 14 Aug 2011
• Tuna species under threatThe Australian, 8 Jul 2011
• Mediterranean in extinction crisis - surveyCourier Mail, 19 Apr 2011

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

The five Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) that manage the global tuna fishing industry do have some measures in place, including restricting the catch of certain species to the amount caught in a previously defined year.

They also operate "input controls" that, among other things, limit the number of fishing vessels, but Ms Nickson argued these were ineffective as they simply provided an incentive to develop more effective fishing methods.

While acknowledging that scientific data on tuna stocks was "imperfect", Ms Nickson said the UN Fish Stocks Agreement specifically provided for the setting of catch limits if the evidence in favour was compelling enough.

"There is sufficient science available to set precautionary limits," Ms Nickson said.

"If we wait five, 10 years for the science to be perfect, in the case of some species we may not have anything left to manage," she added.

The Atlantic bluefin species, which can live to 40 years old and grow to more than four metres long, is in the gravest danger of disappearing with stocks estimated in some areas to have halved over four decades.

It is so highly prized by sushi-loving Japanese that a 269-kilogram fish went for a record 56.49 million yen ($694,000 at the time) in January auctions.

"The message is that some tuna species are in bad shape," said Bruce Collette, chair of the IUCN Tuna and Billfish Specialist Group.

"Long living and high value tunas are threatened by over exploitation and under regulation by the regional agencies," Collette warned.

The global tuna industry is an economic juggernaut, with fishing in the Pacific Ocean alone - accounting for 65 percent of the global commercial catch - worth around $US5.5 billion a year.

Toshio Katsukawa, a fisheries expert from Mie University in Japan, said only urgent international cooperation could safeguard the future of the Pacific bluefin tuna.

"Immediate action is necessary" because the risk of commercial extinction is immediate, Mr Katsukawa said.