World Tuna Day is observed globally on 2nd May every year; it was officially proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) by adopting resolution 71/124 in December 2016. It aimed to spotlight the importance of conservation management and ensure that a system is required to prevent tuna stocks from becoming unsustainably fished.
Radio NZ asked me to wrote about it for its Pacific Service, and that inspired me to make a more personal account for this blog
Me and the fish that gave me a better and more meaningful life
And well deserved day it is for tuna, a substantial number of nations worldwide depend upon tuna for both food security and nutrition. At the same time, more than 96 countries have tuna fisheries, and their capacity is constantly growing.
For some areas of the world, the tuna situation is worst than for others, while acknowledging that I will focus on the one I have been working for over 30 years, mainly in the area of the world where the importance of tuna is better exemplified is exemplified; pacific islands in the western and central Pacific region, the source of over 30% of the world tuna catches.
The sustainability and economic performance of the tuna resource for the pacific islands is a good story in fisheries, a key area of food production that doesn't promote many good stories.
For many years now, the Pacific Island nations have shown substantial leadership in coastal States rights and responsibilities. Our region has the strongest unions among coastal countries (countries responsible for the waters where the tuna is fished) that exist anywhere in the world. Exemplary institutions like the Pacific Islands Fisheries Forum Agency do not exist anywhere else, less along have been working for over 40 years supporting its 17 members around the critical areas of:
Compliance and surveillance; for example, anyone with a laptop and adequate access through the shared Vessels Monitoring System (VMS) we can see where each of the over 2500 vessels fishing in the Eastern Pacific is, what they are doing, their licences, their compliance history, the last port of entry, their electronic reporting, Solid registers like the FFA Regional Register of Fishing Vessels in good standing, (for those that are in compliance with the Harmonized Minimum Terms and Conditions for Access by Fishing Vessels - HMTCs) ), and so on, it also coordinates the 4 most extensive sea and aerials surveillance operations in the world every year, with the support of US, France and Australian assets to make sure all, vessels in the area are authorised (and is working for the last 5 years no illegal vessels has been found!)
Policy and management, The Pacific has been very supportive in terms of reference points, effort controls, fish aggregating device management, etc. The recent incorporation of standardised port State measures through the WCPFC Conservation and Management Measure and FFA port State measures regional framework is a further example of this vision and one I’ve been working substantially on.
But also in terms of who, how, when and where vessels can fish, the 17 countries share HMTCs for these wishing to fish in their waters, these conditions go from the size of the identification markings on the vessels via the fishing gear specification, the bycatch conditions, etc. And remarkably, this includes fishers labour rights, when they included a minimum set of requirements based on ILO’s Working in Fishing Convention (C188) as part of the requirements for the vessels to be allowed to fish in coastal State waters. This is momentous because from 1/1/2020, if a vessel does not uphold those labour rights and conditions as part of their licensing, then their right to fish can be removed, and the vessels would not be in good standing. This is the first time in the world that there is a direct link between labour standards and the right to fish being substantiated by a coalition of coastal States!
To add the these harmonised conditions, a subgroup of FFA members, the PNA countries, have created their supplementary conditions for purse seiners and recently longliners that include, among others, the Vessel Day Scheme (an effort management measure, where vessels pay for every day they gear is in the water, even if nothing is being caught), 100% observers coverage on Purse Seiners, a state of the art information management system, prohibition to tranship outside ports, and so on… these are some of the most exigent fisheries access conditions in the world.
Fisheries development, the maximisation of national returns of fisheries has been propriety for the regions and one that is working. The average value of the annual catch in FFA waters between 2016 and 2018 was $2.9 billion, 51% of the average value of WPCO annual catch of $5.7 billion.
The purse seine fishery contributed on average (2016-2018) just above 80% ($2.4 billion) of the total average (2016- 2018) catch value in the FFA EEZ. The average (2016-2018) value of the skipjack catch was 60% of the total value of the harvest; yellowfin, bigeye and albacore contributed 29%, 8% and 4% respectively.
Foreign fleets which once dominated the harvest sector in FFA EEZs, have seen their share of the value of the catch declined significantly in recent years. In 2010 the share of
the value of the catch taken in FFA member's water by their national fleets (that is, vessels flagged by or chartered to them) was 29% while in 2018 this share had increased to 48%
Source: Tuna Economic Indicators 2019 https://www.ffa.int/system/files/FFA%202019%20Tuna%20Economic%20Indicators%20Brochure%202019.pdf
The value of access fees paid by foreign vessels to FFA members continue to increase over the recent years rising from around $114 million in 2009 to $554 million in 2018.
These license and access fee revenue make an important contribution to FFA member's government finances, representing 25% or more of government revenue (excluding grants) for six FFA members and as high as 85%.
Source: Tuna Economic Indicators 2019 https://www.ffa.int/system/files/FFA%202019%20Tuna%20Economic%20Indicators%20Brochure%202019.pdf
Revenue from the purse seine fleet increased rapidly up to 2015 increase by an average 27% per annum between 2011 and 2015. Growth then slowed increasing by just 2% in 2016 and 4% in 2017 before rising 12% in 2018. This growth has been driven by the increase in the value of days under the PNA purse seine effort-based Vessel Day Scheme (VDS). Prior to 2011, the value of the day was generally less than $2000 but this increased rapidly following the introduction of a benchmark price that set an agreed minimum price.
This benchmark price was set at $5000 in 2011, increased to $6000 in 2014 and again increased to $8000 in 2015 where it currently stands. VDS days in 2018 sold in a range between $9,000 and $14,000/day.
Source: Tuna Economic Indicators 2019 https://www.ffa.int/system/files/FFA%202019%20Tuna%20Economic%20Indicators%20Brochure%202019.pdf
Total employment related to tuna fisheries in FFA member countries for 2018 is estimated at around 22,350, an increase of 3% from the previous year. Since 2010, there has been consistent growth in employment numbers. The onshore processing sector makes the largest contribution to employment with about 65% of total employment related to tuna fisheries coming from this sector. Total employment in the onshore processing sector in 2018 was estimated at 14,497, an increase of 7% from the previous year. The harvest, observers and the public sector contribute around 25%, 4% and 7% of total employment respectively. The majority of those employed in the processing sector are employed in PNG, which accounts for about 60% of all processing works. Around 16% of processing employment is in the Solomon Islands, 15% in Fiji and 3% in the Marshall Islands. Among processing workers an estimated 10,800, or 75%, are women while an estimated 3,600 are male. Significant growth in employment was also observed in the public sector with numbers increasing to around 1,568, more than 60% higher than 5 years ago.
And all this has been achieved while maintaining the stock at sustainable levels as evaluated by arguably the best tuna and stock assessments scientist in the world, such as those based in the Oceanic Fisheries Programme of the Pacific Community headquarters in New Caledonia and confirmed by the peer review process. All four main WCPO tuna stocks (albacore, bigeye, skipjack and yellowfin) are deemed to be "biologically healthy" in that they are not overfished nor is overfishing occurring.
Source: The western and central Pacific tuna fishery: 2019 overview and status of stocks https://fame1.spc.int/en/component/content/article/251
This great 4 minute video explains how Tuna Governance works in the Western and Central Pacific… and surely because that our outcomes in terms of sustainability are different from other ocean basins
And this is not to say that is all perfect… the region has seen a changed perception of the stock provided by the 2019 assessment, discussions on the appropriate TRP value for skipjack tuna continue. The albacore stock is projected to decline further below its target reference point of 56% of unfished biomass if recent high catch levels continue into the future, significant concerns remain for us with regard to low catch rates in longline fisheries targeting albacore and the economic returns these fisheries generate. Therefore as 17 country blocks with sufficient muscle to operate at the international level we push for stronger conservation and management measures at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, the management body that brings together the coastal states and the Distant Water Fishing Nations (DWFN)
And while substantial challenges remain (for example, increasing fishing effort and transhipment and labour issues in the HS – where the flag states have sole responsibility, the impact of "fishing effort creep" through new technologies like Fish Aggregation Devices with automatised echo sounders, able to transmit via satellite not only the positions but also the volumes and species composition of fish below, the impact of climate change, etc ) Yet we have some of the best people in the world dealing with these issues. As an example the FFA countries were in 2016 the 1st region to identify under and misreporting as the main elements of IUU fishing in our region as well as to quantify the rent loss to coastal countries of that practices, estimating a value of around 160 million US… well below previous estimates. The 2021 update of this work is presently being done and is showing promising results.
So yes… Tuna is fundamental for the pacific region, and the region is managing their fisheries sustainably because they are capable and understand better than anyone else, the implications of a failure.
And this is an issue of overarching importance since competing interests are impacting tuna sustainability. There is a fundamental (and perhaps unbridgeable) difference; as clearly expressed to me, by my Nauruan friend and colleague Monte Depaune: “for non-Pacific Islands and Distant Water Fishing Nations (DWFN) the issue of tuna sustainability is one of long-term financial benefit. However, for coastal States PICs it is also an identity and food security issue, one that DWFNs have less trouble with, as they can leave… but PICs cannot”.
Pacific leaders (albeit the cultural differences they have) have always understood that unity and collaboration are the best approaches against the divide and conquer strategies they sometimes face. Whilst there is little they can do in terms of managing the High Seas, they are themselves Large Oceanic Nations instead of Small Island States, and in their waters, they have the last word.
The western and central Pacific tuna fishery: 2019 overview and status of stocks https://fame1.spc.int/en/component/content/article/251
The graph above compares the sustainability of the main tuna stock in the different regions of the world, the WCPO is the proud green tower, and this is really good news, that should be known!
In the fisheries world, the power shift is moving to the ones with the fish from the ones with the boats, even if the latter are richer and more influential. Without the strong cooperation and cultural linkages among Pacific Islands coastal States that I have been honoured to witness and learn from, I doubt there would be a healthy tuna fishery such as the one they now have. I'm incredibly proud to be trusted by my hosts in the region as to be a small part of the massive team that has achieved that.
At the personal level the story goes a bit darker and private
The last picture of the ARA Belgrano @Martín Sgut on 2/5/1982
2nd May was always a sad and difficult day for me many others that were with me as cadets and conscripts in the Argentinean Navy ( I grow up there). On 2nd May of 1982, during Falklands/Malvinas Islands war that England and Argentina had over these islands (450 km from the Argentinean coast / 12500km from England), Argentina's biggest ship, a relic from the 2nd world war, "The General Belgrano" was sunk by a British Nuclear Submarine outside the 200nm exclusion zone, south-east of "Isla de los Estados" The sinking took place at 57S in the sub-Antarctic oceans, where the weather and water are freezing and miserable, is already hard to survive there as a well-equipped search and rescue swimmer (my "job" then) so imagine as unequipped and in many cases wounded sailors… 323 young people (most of them around my age) died either from wounds or hypothermia… just over half of the Argentine deaths in the war, in a matter of a few hours. I never blamed any side in particular, yet I never forgot either… wars are declared by old powerful people, yet fought by young and poor ones. Who is to blame… who's side is "right" (as if that was an excuse), means nothing to the families of those young people like me, that never made it back…
In any case… 2nd May dragged not good memories for my generation… I had my difficulties with it over years to come, mostly around believing in humanity, believing that “good” works and being a “good person” pays back and is ultimately rewarded. After leaving the Navy a year later, I was a bit lost, I loved the ocean, but I had little respect for authority… so I use my navy skills and went into commercial fishing… then started studying fisheries and working my way to the ranks both on the boats and the science world… Over the next 10 years, I had some good times, but also I grew more bitter with Argentina, its political authorities, its economic mismanagement, its fisheries industry and administrations, and a society whose values were departing far from my own sense of fairness.
I left on a sailing boat to come to the Pacific, which since I was a kid and read on a 1976 National Geographic about the travels of the Hōkūleʻa, knowing the islands i had read about was a fantasy of mine… I was escaping, full of hope but also as a broken man not just economically and at my soul… other than some family I had nothing left there…nothing to come back. The only good thing about not having much… is that you have nothing to lose… everything is an opportunity.
Looking to my future with Tuna
I found then a new life fishing tuna, I remember looking at my 1st yellowfin working on longliner west of French Polynesia, and just been amazed and the strength, colour and "mana" of that fish…
I didn't realise then, but that fish gave me a 2nd chance in life…
I kept fishing tuna and moving west and then south for the next couple of years knowing the islands, meeting people that lived at different beat… one much closer to ones I grow up with and then life in the cities and boats made me forget
Many things had happened since those days, through tuna… Tuna gave me more opportunities than my own country of birth without expecting from me anything other than honesty and respect. But most importantly it gave me many good friends and an extended family in places that barely figure on maps, yet there is more "humanity" here than in countries whose "empires" cover the earth.
So yeah, I been always deeply thankful to tuna… And when 35 years after that “first” 2nd May…. of the 365 days of the year of which World Tuna Day could have been chosen… the fact that it was 2nd May, made me drop some tears as it is perhaps more than a coincidence