PM sounds warning on illegal fishing

PRIME Minister James Marape has warned vessels fishing illegally in Papua New Guinea waters that if caught their boats would be sunk.
Marape made the comments at the opening of the 16th regular session of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) in Port Moresby yesterday.
“Our ocean, the Western Central Pacific Ocean is home to world’s most productive tuna fisheries as most of you would know,” he said.
“In the case of the biggest tuna stock being skipjack, our island EEZ (exclusive economic zone) produce about 70 per cent of the entire catch in the Western Central Pacific area.
“Despite the healthy statistics I’m aware that there are issues affecting the sustainability of tuna and other highly migratory fish stocks of our ocean.”
Marape said one of the key challenges was illegal unreported unregulated (IUU) fishing.
“Illegal fishing and credible traceability has far reaching consequences for the long term sustainable management of our fisheries we need to address this global phenomenon or global theft.
“Our country will be seriously working to protect this zone from theft and we are working with our partners to ensure security of our borders.
I take this time to warn those who are illegally fishing in our waters, when I build up capacity of my maritime protection, illegal boats caught in our country will be sunk.”
The commission gathered in Port Moresby this week to discuss the sustainable management and conservation of the tuna fishery.
“It is incumbent on all of us to ensure our fish stocks are healthy,” he said.
According to information from the National Fisheries Authority, tuna is the largest of the country’s fisheries and represents a balance of both domestic industry development and Foreign (DWFN) Access arrangements.
The fishery is primarily based on the skipjack and yellowfin species with smaller quantities of bigeye and albacore.
The catch is usually about 150,000 metric tonnes to 200,000mt per year but it is estimated that the resource can sustain much higher annual catches of 250,000mt to 300,000mt.