PNG takes measures to deal with warning

 PAPUA New Guinea has taken measures in its fisheries sector as ways forward to deal with “yellow card” issued by European Union, an official says.

National Fisheries Authority managing director John Kasu said this during the first day of the two-day Pacific Tuna Forum in Nadi, Fiji, yesterday.

He said PNG committed vast amount of resources to address the issues and undertook the following reforms:

• Review of National Fisheries Management Act;
• review of National Tuna Management Plan;
• development of National Plan of Action for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing;
• Enhanced port monitoring;
• Flagged CDS to facilitate flag state compliance of PNG development partners.

Kasu said the EU issued yellow card to PNG for following reasons:

• Conservation and management measures;
• legal and administrative framework;
• compliance scheme: MCS measurement and traceability;
•  Improvement in the implementation of the catch certification scheme;

Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Mao Zeming noted that the impact of yellow card on Pacific Island countries in recent years was a concern which needed to be addressed. 

“There are more yellow cards issued to countries in this region than any other regions in the world,” Zeming said.

“We take note of this and continue to promote regional approach to sustainably manage fisheries resources and also strengthen the monitoring and surveillance programmes in the region through broader corporation with regional partners in combatting illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) activities,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Kasu also highlighted that PNG maintained and was committed to building a vibrant fishing industry and developed policies which included: 

• All catches within archipelagic waters to be processed in PNG;
• Vessel Day Schemes allocations for archipelagic waters issued to tuna processors who would then allocate to their fishing vessels or associated fishing vessels;
• By end of next year, there would no longer be locally based foreign flagged vessels. All vessels to be either PNG flagged or foreign flagged. Tuna processing plants are encouraged to increase their levels of processing capacities with fishing licences to be reviewed to reflect processing capacities.