How powerless pacific small countries saved tuna from powerful powers

Tuna

Tuvalu

Nauru

Published Mar 8, 2021

Tridge summary

Nauru, Marshall, Micronesia, Solomon, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Palau. The smart tuna diplomacy of eight small island nations in the Midwestern Pacific was found to have saved their economies and prevented overfishing of tuna. The success of the fishing agreement signed by the PNA (Parties to the Nauru Agreement), a regional cooperation organization with eight island nations, has become a model showing how weak countries can successfully diplomatic relations from the powers. On the 6th (local time), foreign affairs magazine Foreign Policy reported. The eight island nations are distributed in the waters where most of the world's tuna fishing is done. From Hawaii and the Philippines to the coast of Australia, the Pacific Ocean, 1.5 times the total area of the United States, is under the control of the PNA. Ten years ago, tuna fees received by the PNA from large deep-sea fishing vessels in the world's powers were only 2.5% of the total catch.

Original content

This is because ships overfishing tuna have reported fewer catches to eight PNA countries. Instead of a fee based on catch volume, PNA 8 introduced a new system where ship owners are charged for each day of fishing. They decided to collect an average of 12,000 dollars a day (about 1354 million won). In addition, the act of indiscriminately catching tuna using special equipment such as a fish accumulator (FAD) was stopped. In addition to popular tuna species such as bluefin tuna, it is to prevent other tuna species from being caught and discarded or from slaughtering young tuna. With the introduction of the new system, overfishing of tuna has significantly decreased, and damage from other fish such as sharks and turtles caught in the net has also decreased. "We are not selling tuna, we are selling opportunities to fish," said PNA representative Ludwig Kumoru. The economic benefits returned to the eight PNA countries are also great. Kiribati, a small island country with 117,000 ...

Source: Khan