Pacific island nations were missing out on income from lucrative tuna fisheries and should consider tripling access fees for foreign vessels, the region's fishing chief says.
Transform Aqorau said Pacific islanders needed to take a united stand to ensure they received a fair share of their tuna catch, worth an estimated US$2.0 billion a year, which is dominated by US and Asian fishing companies.
"On our own, we cannot change the fisheries system in the Pacific, collectively, we can," said Aqorau, director of the eight-nation Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) grouping.
Speaking ahead of a PNA meeting in the Marshall Islands later this month, Aqorau said that access fees for foreign fishing vessels "should be double or triple what they are today. "
"We are not yet benefiting from what is rightfully our resource," he said.
About 60 percent of the Pacific tuna catch comes from PNA waters and the organisation's commercial manager Maurice Brownjohn said foreign companies must involve the island nations more in the fisheries.
Source: AFP
