As of August 13, 2009, there were 1,556 authorised tuna vessels being tracked by the Western-Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) Vessel Monitoring System (VMS). There are a total of 9,233 authorised vessels from 26 flags on record.
Since April, the commission has been directly receiving the high sea positions of vessels registered with the system.
"The WCPFC VMS is unique among similar systems implemented by other Regional Fisheries Management Organisations because the WCPFC directly receives information from the commission VMS rather via the vessel's flag state," Karl Staisch, Observer Programme Coordinator was quoted as saying by Atuna.
The commission hopes to have 2,300 vessels registered by its first anniversary, on April 1, 2010.
