Tuna tagging programme in PNG waters ends

THE tag seeding cruise 2019 into Papua New Guinea waters ended in Manus with the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) and Customs conducting clearance process before heading for Palau and the Micronesian states.
PNG Secretariat of the Pacific-Community (SPC) tuna recovery and biological sampling coordinator Robert Ano said seeding cruise was a scientific tuna tagging partnership programme between SPC and NFA for the purpose of monitoring tuna take and recovery stock and sampling.
Ano said SPC undertook the tagging exercise and BS biannually using the same vessel – Soltai.
The Pacific tuna tagging programme goes back to 2006, where tagging was done for skipjack, yellow fin and big eye tuna using convectional and electronic tags.
Ano said the tagging activity, led by SPC, was concentrated over the entire equatorial, western and central Pacific ocean.
“Tuna tagging helps us collect biological sampling of tuna stock and spawning and migration which is vital for the global scientific tuna community.”