By JASON S0M KAUT
CLIMATE change is the biggest threat facing Papua New Guinea’s lucrative marine industry.
Sea temperatures were expected to rise by 4% because of global warming forcing the migratory tuna stocks to leave for cooler waters.
Fisheries Minister Ben Semri made this remarks last Wednesday during a visit to Lae to officiate at the hand-over of the fish processing and cold storage facility by the Chinese Ambassador Wei Ruixing.
The Chinese government provided K7million while the PNG Government gave counterpart funding of K3 million for the facility construction.
“Climate change is a big threat that may see us likely to lose our fishing and spawning grounds,” he said.
The sector last year brought in a total of some K54 million into the national coffers.
Mr Semri said because of global warming climatic change was likely to lead to coral bleaching and affect our mangroves which are rich in marine resources and major spawning grounds for fish species.
Other major challenges he highlighted included:
* Declining stocks of big-eye and yellow fin tuna;
* Challenges of regulating, monitoring and preserving of fish stocks; and
* Increasing fuel prices due to higher crude oil prices.
“The increasing fuel prices had put a lot of pressure on the domestic fishing industry,” Mr Semri said.
He said PNG had the largest tuna stock in the Central Western Pacific and has the largest tuna stocks in the world.
“Lack of down-stream processing facilities was denying PNG greater benefit,” Mr Semri said.
He said PNG is located in the coral triangle that includes six countries in Asia and the Pacific which have the largest collection of coral reefs in the world.
Mr Semri revealed that the area was referred to as the “Amazon of the sea” and the six countries were collaborating on monitoring and conserving this rich resource.
He revealed that PNG has the second best monitoring system in the world but more collaboration was needed between stakeholders to ensure stocks last.
These include Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Timor Leste.