Understand Pacific’s plight: Wong

FISHERIES and Marine Resources Minister Jelta Wong has challenged the global oceans movement on marine protected areas to truly understand the plight of the Pacific island countries.
At the Oceans Conference in Athens, Greece, on Tuesday, he told world leaders that the ocean was fundamental to the Pacific people’s identity, culture and economic development.
“It plays an important role in providing food and daily sustenance for people and communities, creates jobs, vital source for carbon sinks and home to diverse marine and coastal resources found in our waters,” Wong said.
“As an example, our waters supply 18 per cent of the global tuna catch and 15 per cent of the global tuna trade.
He said Papua New Guinea was a maritime and archipelagic State, hosting more than seven per cent of the world’s biodiversity in less than 1 per cent of the world’s land area.
It has some of the richest seas with 76 per cent of the world’s hard coral species, 37 per cent of the world’s reef fish species, 23 species of marine mammals, eight species of tuna, six species of marine turtles, and diverse marine ecosystems with extensive natural habitats of coral, mangrove, seagrass, and associated inter-tidal areas.
“Papua New Guinea hosts high biodiversity endemism in the order of 30 per cent, and it lies in the Coral Triangle having the highest marine biodiversity richness in the large Pacific Ocean,” the Gazelle MP said.