Madang villager wins SPCS award

A LOCAL landowner from Kananam village in Madang has been awarded K55,000 by the South Pacific Commission Secretariat and the National Fisheries Authority.
Bernard Nalu, a landowner from the village just outside the Pacific Marine Industrial location at Vidar, Madang, was chosen among other winners from the Philippines and Thailand.
The prize was for the number of fish tags he produced at the RD Fishing port in Vidar.
Nalu, who unloads on Abraham RD Fishing, a catcher, was at a loss for words when told of his win.
“I was told on Monday to bring my child back home as I had to pay an outstanding amount of K500 from last year.
“This was a worry as I was sitting at the hospital today thinking of what to do when I got the phone call, I was just thankful to God for answering my prayer,” he said.
SPC tagging recovery officers said tuna tagging was an ongoing event that saw 1,489 tags being collected last year, with an average of 400,000-50,000 fish being tagged in a three-month period.
“RD Fishing has helped us a lot in tag collection and we are thankful.
“The other two are Frabelle, in Lae, and Wewak.”
Madang will be seeing the Soltai 105 tagging boat
its waters towards the end of this month.
Under the regional tuna tagging project, Papua New Guinea, Thailand and the Philippines have had their tuna species tagged.
The tuna species were yellow fin, skipjack, big eye tuna.
The aim of tagging was to find out about the migratory patterns of the fish to have a sustainable management.
The other two winners of the day were Michael Meledres and Sonny Simbajon.