UN releases first draft of critical high seas treaty

By Undercurrent News

he UN has released the first draft of its new legally binding instrument for the conservation of marine life in international waters, following a series of discussions that began in September last year.

The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) agreement aspires to lay down an official set of regulations governing how UN member states make use of the high seas, with the final version of the new regulations officially slated for release in 2020.

The second set of negotiations took place in April, with the third round due to run from Aug. 19-30, 2019. However, given the "significant challenges" involved in addressing the topics which form the BBNJ, the World Ocean Council (WOC) has said that more discussions than were initially planned could be required.

According to the WOC, those sectors which stand to be affected by the final agreement include fisheries, shipping, geophysical surveys, deep sea mining, and marine genetic resource firms.

As evidenced by the draft document, the final agreement could have widespread ramifications for any industry which conducts some or all of its business in the high seas (listed below):

• New, stricter requirements and controls by states over the activities conducted by
  companies under their control or jurisdiction

• Expanded or new national, regional and/or international authorities for BBNJ

• New mechanisms of declaration, authorization, and reporting of activities to authorities

• Requirements for environmental impact assessments (EIAs) prior to operations or activities

• Requirements for 'Strategic EIAs' for a broader suite of regular activities over a wider area

• Requirements for the monitoring and reporting of activities and impacts (or lack thereof)

• Assessment of cumulative impacts (e.g. marine sound, climate change, acidification)

• Strengthening of surveillance and security mechanisms to protect activities and resources

• Significant ocean areas identified as requiring special consideration for industry operations

• Limitation of geographical scope of activities through area-based management that establishes new area limits to activities, including on the seabed (e.g. seamounts)

• New conflicting or competing activities with the expansion of marine genetic resource exploration and exploitation (e.g. around hydrothermal vents)

• Requirements for private sector input throughout the BBNJ agreement implementation, e.g. through public consultation, especially as more specific rules and regulations are developed

The WOC, which acts as a representative for the ocean business community within the BBNJ discussions, has said there is still time for ocean industries to engage and have a voice in the negotiations. 

To read the full article follow the link below:

https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2019/06/28/un-releases-first-draft-of-critical-high-seas-treaty/

Major canner Princes wants IOTC to adopt yellowfin rebuilding plan

By Undercurrent News

United Kingdom-based tuna canner Princes has asked the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) to hold an emergency meeting to develop a rebuilding plan for dwindling yellowfin stocks.

Following the IOTC's recent annual meeting in Hyderabad, India, the European Commission said it regretted that the group's policies on yellowfin were "not ambitious enough to reduce current overfishing". Several other groups including the WWF have criticized IOTC members over their failure to act on yellowfin rebuilding.

Princes, which is owned by Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation, has major processing operations based in the island nation of Mauritius. 

“Whilst some progress was made at the IOTC meeting the measures taken around the critical element of rebuilding yellowfin stocks did not go far enough,” David McDiarmid, Princes corporate relations director, said. “We therefore join the WWF in asking the IOTC to call an emergency session that focuses on solutions that will make a difference.”

https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2019/06/28/major-canner-princes-wants-iotc-to-adopt-yellowfin-rebuilding-plan/

New indicators could help manage global overfishing

NOAA NORTHEAST FISHERIES SCIENCE CENTER

The smallest plants and creatures in the ocean power an entire food web, including the fish that much of the world's population depend on for food, work and cultural identity.

In a paper published in Science Advances, NOAA Fisheries researcher Jason Link and colleague Reg Watson from the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies suggest that scientists and resource managers need to focus on whole ecosystems rather than soley on individual populations. Population-by-population fishery management is more common around the world, but a new approach could help avoid damaging overfishing and the insecurity that brings to fishing economies.

"In simple terms, to successfully manage fisheries in an ecosystem, the rate of removal for all fishes combined must be equal to or less than the rate of renewal for all those fish," said Link, the senior scientist for ecosystem management at NOAA Fisheries and a former fisheries scientist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

The authors suggest using large-scale ecosystem indices as a way to determine when ecosystem overfishing is occurring. They propose three indices, each based on widely available catch and satellite data, to link fisheries landings to primary production and energy transfer up the marine food chain. Specific threshholds developed for each index make it possible, they say, to determine if ecosystem overfishing is occurring. By their definition, ecosystem overfishing occurs when the total catch of all fish is declining, the total catch rate or fishing effort required to get that catch is also declining, and the total landings relative to the production in that ecosystem exceed suitable limits.

"Detecting overfishing at an ecosystem level will help to avoid many of the impacts we have seen when managing fished species on a population-by-population basis, and holds promise for detecting major shifts in ecosystem and fisheries productivity much more quickly," said Link.

As an example, in the North Sea, declines in these indices suggested that total declines in fish catch indicative of ecosystem overfishing was occurring about 5-10 years earlier than what was pieced together by looking at sequential collapses in individual populations of cods, herrings and other species. Undue loss of value and shifting the catches in that ecosystem to one dominated by smaller fishes and invertebrates could have been avoided, the authors say.”

To continue to read the full article follow the link:

https://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-06/nnfs-nic062519.php

Fishery Managers Recommend Removing Bigeye Tuna Quota Limit for US Pacific Territories Consistent with International Provisions

HONOLULU, HI / ACCESSWIRE / June 28, 2019 / The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, yesterday in Honolulu, recommended removing the 2,000 metric (mt) annual catch limit for bigeye tuna caught by longline in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) for the US Pacific Territories of American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Removal of the catch limit would bring parity between the US Territories and other Territories and Small Island Developing States (SIDs) in the region. The recommendation will go the US Secretary of Commerce for approval as part of Amendment 9 to the Pacific Pelagic Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) for the Western Pacific Region.

Under the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), an international regional fishery management organization to which the United States belongs, Participating Territories (including the US Territories) and SIDS have no longline-caught bigeye tuna limit in the WCPO. This is because the WCPFC recognizes the aspiration of SIDS and Participating Territories to develop their fisheries. The Council, however, recommended and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) established limits of 2,000 mt per US Territory under Amendment 7 of the Pelagic FEP for the Western Pacific Region. This was at a time when there was some concern about the status of the Pacific bigeye tuna stock. Subsequently, the 2017 and 2018 bigeye tuna stock assessments by the Pacific Community (SPC), the science provider for the WCPFC, show the Western stock as being neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing.

Besides removing the WCPO longline-caught bigeye limit for the US Territories, the Council yesterday recommended that each US Territory be allowed to allocate up to 1,500 mt of its quota to federally permitted, Hawai'i-based longline vessels under specified fishing agreements for fishing years 2020 through 2023. Currently under Amendment 7 of the Pelagic FEP, the allocation level is set at 1,000 mt per Territory per year.

Fees paid by vessels to the Territories under these agreements are deposited into the Western Pacific Sustainable Fisheries Fund (WPSFF) for projects identified by the governor of each Territory in its respective Marine Conservation Plan (MCP). The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Pacific Islands Regional Office oversees the WPSFF, while the Council administers sub-awards from the fund to the Territories. The Council has recommended that fees from the agreements go directly to the Territories, which would require a revision to the section regarding the WPSFF in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaii Longline Association (HLA), noted during public comments that the allocation increase would provide "more flexibility in these agreements, as well as the utilization of a resource that is not experiencing overfishing or overfished, and the opportunity for Territories to benefit."

FAST FACTS ABOUT THE HAWAII LONGLINE BIGEYE TUNA FISHERY AND QUOTA

• Local longline fleet for bigeye tuna is the largest food producer in Hawai'i, landingabout 5,358 mt based on 2017 data. This better reflects the capacity of the fleet and the demand of its market.

• About 80 percent of the landings remain in the islands, yet the amount of imports of fish species targeted by the local fisheries has been increasing.

• The US quota of longline-caught bigeye tuna in the WPCO set by the WCPFC for 2018-2020 is 3,554 mt. This amount is based on the catch by the Hawai'i-based longline fleet in 2014 minus a few incremental decreases over the years.

To read the full article please follow the link:

https://www.morningstar.com/news/access-wire/ASW_Accesswire_550263MSN/fishery-managers-recommend-removing-bigeye-tuna-quota-limit-for-us-pacific-territories-consistent-with-international-provisions.html

Ecuador becomes first IATTC member to develop action plan for tuna

By Undercurrent News

“Ecuador will become the first member of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) to have a national action plan (PAN) for its tuna fisheries when the project is completed in the next few weeks.

The PAN will serve as a guide to the Ecuadorian government providing short, medium and long-term actions to improve the sustainable management of the fishery. The plan covers all aspects of the fishery, including monitoring, information gathering, scientific research, reduction of impacts on ecosystems, its control system and any sanctions and technological changes.

The plan is the product of Tunacons, a tuna conservation project made up of Ecuador's four biggest tuna fisheries: Real Industrial Businesses (NIRSA), Jadran, Servigrup, Eurofish and the US tuna giant Tri Marine.

The PAN reportedly took one year to create and will be the subject of a workshop in the next few weeks with all the actors involved to ensure its implementation becomes a permanent government policy.”

To read the rest of the article please follow the link:

https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2019/06/19/ecuador-becomes-first-iattc-member-to-develop-action-plan-for-tuna/

EU, Pacific fish forum engage in first ever policy dialogue

By Undercurrent News

“The first ever discussions between the EU and the 17 members of the Forum Fishery Agency (FFA) regarding the management of marine resources took place in Pohnpei, in the Federated States of Micronesia on June 21.

The two-day meeting was arranged under the framework of the Pacific-European Union Marine Partnership program (PEUMP), a four-year initiative that aims to reduce levels of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the region, as well as find trade negotiations to remove the need for fishery subsidies.

FFA director general, Manu Tupou-Roosen said: “This policy dialogue is important because it is an opportunity for FFA members and the EU to have an in-depth discussion on key issues relating to the sustainable management of tuna in our region, its importance for Pacific island countries, and our cooperation in the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission to tackle issues like IUU fishing."

The €45 million PEUMP is being funded by the EU and the Swedish government. It claims to follow "a comprehensive approach, integrating issues related oceanic fisheries, coastal fisheries, community development, marine conservation and capacity building under one single regional action." The policy dialogue that began on June 21 is intended to be an annual event within the initiative.”

To read the full article please follow the link":

https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2019/06/21/eu-pacific-fish-forum-engage-in-first-ever-policy-dialogue/

Western Pacific council’s science panel makes recommendations for bigeye

By Undercurrent News

The scientific and statistical committee (SSC) for the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC) has recommended that no catch limits be set for longliners pursuing bigeye tuna near the three US territories in Pacific Ocean -- American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands -- from 2020 until 2023. 

The panel also recommended that each of the territories be allowed to allocate up to 2,000 metric tons to federally permitted Hawaii longline vessels.

The SSC's recommendations came during a three-day meeting concluded in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Thursday, and preceded a meeting by the WPRFMC to be held in the same city, June 25-27, where bigeye tuna catch and allocation limits will be on the agenda.

Small, developing states in the Pacific don't have longline-caught bigeye quotas, the council explains on its website, but under an amendment to its pelagic fishery ecosystem plan, the US' National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has the authority to specify annual catch and allocation limits for the three US territories. In recent years, each US territory had a 2,000t limit and authority to allocate up to 1,000t.

To read the full article please visit:

https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2019/06/21/western-pacific-councils-science-panel-makes-recommendations-for-bigeye/

US western Pacific council to discuss crab, bigeye tuna stocks

By Undercurrent News 

The US Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC) will meet next week to discuss setting allowable biological catch (ABC) limits for Kona crab in Hawaii as well as bigeye tuna catch limits for longliners.

According to a release from the council ahead of its three-day meeting in Honolulu, which begins June 22, members of its scientific and statistical committee (SSC) will hear reports in order to help them make recommendations on the ABC for Kona crab. A recently produced stock assessment on the species gives catch projections until 2026 and will help the committee recommend the ABC for the 2020 to 2023 period.

The committee will also consider recommendations for catch limits in for longline bigeye tuna for US territories. The regional Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission limited US longline bigeye catch to 3,554 metric tons annually in 2019 and 2020 but the US National Marine Fisheries Service has the authority to set limits for the individual territories. The council's SSC will make recommendations on those limits. 

To read more follow the link:

https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2019/06/12/us-western-pacific-council-to-discuss-crab-bigeye-tuna-stocks/

High tuna catches cause bottlenecks, market pressure in Pacific

By Neil Ramsden

High levels of tuna catches in the western, central, and eastern regions of the Pacific Ocean in May and June have led to supply bottlenecks and a tricky time for the logistics chain, according to an internal memo from the World Tuna Purse Seine Organisation (WTPO).

The note, seen by Undercurrent News, notes "above average" catching "from May this year to the first week of June 2019". Over the same period, Atlantic catches have been average and Indian Ocean landings poor, it said.

At the end of May Undercurrent reported skipjack tuna prices in key processing hubs such as Thailand and Ecuador were expected to weaken in June, signaling the downtrend started in May might continue into the summer months.

Higher Chinese offering in key markets and lower demand in the Middle East were mentioned as the key bearish drivers, while some sources in Ecuador pointed out that price instability is hindering commissioning of new fishing vessels in Latin America.

High catch levels in May have seen a lack of carrier space at sea in the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) region, as well as a lack of cold storage space in ports, resulting in slow unloading and turnaround of reefer carriers, said WTPO.

"Purse seine vessels have been forced to stay in port for 10 to 12 days longer than usual, while we have reports that some... have stayed in port for more than two weeks."

This has seen most purse seine vessel owners -- as well as traders -- in the WCPFC suffer from demurrage charges "imposed by refrigerated carrier companies, in addition to high fishing access fees".

"This further aggravates the overall economic viability of the fishing vessel operator/company," said the WTPO secretariat.

It said there was a consensus from most member companies in the western and central Pacific Ocean (WCPO), Indian Ocean, and Atlantic Ocean, to voluntarily call some vessels back to their home ports for early drydocking and maintenance work, plus vessels which are also scheduled to leave port have been ordered to stay in port due to the unfavorable conditions at the fishing grounds. The WTPO encouraged others to do the same.

"We analyze that the situation will stabilize soon given the upcoming ban on [fish aggregating devices] in the WCPO by July 1, which will result in a 30% reduction in production based on past three years data." A complete fishing ban in the eastern Pacific is also due for July 29 to Oct. 8, a source further told Undercurrent.

To read the full article follow the link:

https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2019/06/13/high-tuna-catches-cause-bottlenecks-market-pressure-in-pacific/

US NGO works as high seas sleuth to track illegal fishing

WASHINGTON: From her desk in a building in downtown Washington, Lacey Malarky monitors fishing vessels that take advantage of the vastness of Earth’s oceans to cheat in the belief that no one is watching. 

Malarky uses a website called Global Fishing Watch, which was launched by her employer, the NGO Oceana, with Google and a non-profit called SkyTruth less than three years ago to trace where 70,000 fishing vessels have sailed since 2012. 

The site analyses the GPS signals emitted by these ships and plots them on a map to help people such as Malarky to determine if they have gone into a protected region, or are in fact working in an area that corresponds to the species of fish they say they are looking for. 

Using artificial intelligence, Global Fishing Watch can even tell what kind of fishing technique a vessel is engaged in: trawling (a net that drags along the seabed); longlining (a line with baited hooks spaced at intervals) or purse seine fishing (using a net that hangs vertically and surrounds a school of fish). 

Each method has its own its pace and trajectory and targets specific species.

Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2019/06/14/us-ngo-works-as-high-seas-sleuth-to-track-illegal-fishing/#QohWwzOjBdeGMVuq.99

To read the full article follow the link:
Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2019/06/14/us-ngo-works-as-high-seas-sleuth-to-track-illegal-fishing/#QohWwzOjBdeGMVuq.99