Fishing vessels now carrying PNG flag

 By GYNNIE KERO

NATIONAL Fisheries Authority deputy managing director Ludwig Kumoru says 50 vessels are now carrying the Papua New Guinea flag following the authority’s call earlier this year for all foreign fishing boats to reflag. 

Kumoru said this was one measure under NFA’s new reformed, which aimed to have some control in the fishery industry, particular for the lucrative tuna industry.

He had said PNG’s average revenue from tuna per year was K300 million.

Kumoru said another reason for the reflagging of vessels was because the authority was trying to limit the number of boats fishing in PNG waters.

He said a deadline for all foreign boats to reflag to PNG flag was at the end of 2016.

 “There are roughly around 300 boats that are going around PNG waters fishing tuna and most of them are all foreign owned,” Kumoru said.

“As it is, foreign boats with foreign flags have every right to take fish out of the country; they don’t carry the PNG flag. 

 “The moment we make them have PNG flag we can control and ask them (boats) to process fish here.

 “The intention of NFA now is not to make money, we need money to run the organisation and the programmes, we want the benefit of the fisheries to be realised by the country through job creation, paying taxes or other spin off benefits, that way the country earn the value of the industry.

“Now that we have reflagged some of those 50 boats, we can have small control over them. At the end of 2016, if a foreign boat didn’t reflag, it has short time after that it has no future in PNG,” he said.

On the number of skipjack tuna being caught in PNG waters, Kumoro said: “From an assessment last year, about 70 per cent of skip jack available in PNG waters has been fished out.

“We have 30 per cent of skip jack now compared to when there was no fishing at all. Now we need to control how much we can fish to build that up, if we can build the stock back up to 50 per cent that’s good for us.

“We have done number of reforms like cut down on number of fishing efforts in archipelagic waters (AW).

“Previously boats were fishing for 9500 days in the AW, now under new management we only allow them 5500 days.”