From Islands Business April 2012
Letters:
PNA’s self-promotion misleading
The on-going self-promotion by the PNA as the Western and Central Pacific’s saviour for tuna is blatantly misleading and a farce.
Continually playing on their “disadvantaged” situation as developing economies and small Islands States, it is only the PNA member countries themselves that have continued to license fishing vessels to fish in their EEZs (Exclusive Economic Zones) in their greedy effort to maximise foreign earnings from the tuna resources that migrate through their EEZs.
Of course, the DWFNs (Distant Water Fishing Nations) have provided that effort—but that would come to an end if the PNA didn’t keep offering the DWFNs the opportunity.
Pew, Greenpeace and WWF still don’t get it—the high seas pockets were never closed for conservation reasons.
The PNA placed a condition of access to their EEZs on an undertaking not to fish the high seas purely for economic reasons—to force more revenue generating effort into their zones. Simple evidence of this is in the increase in EEZ effort, in vessel days, since the closures were introduced (and by more than 30% since the PNA agreed to the original hard limit in 2004). And the PNA wants more.
Far from their conservation rhetoric, the PNA has suddenly changed its tune with the US on the multilateral treaty renegotiation.
As soon as the US dangled US$58 million/year in front of them, the PNA immediately started to sing a different tune—to the extent of inviting the US to support the PNA’s idea of revising the 2004 hard limit up to 2010 levels!
The commonsense approach would be to use the US position to leverage similar commitments and returns from other fleets—including reducing their effort to prevent a blowout in agreed hard limits on effort—but too many of the PNAs are too close to some of the other fleets to be able to take that route.
PNAs are deluding themselves and unfortunately taking others, including the future generations of Pacific Islanders, along with them.
- P J Johnson, Papua New Guinea
Letters:
PNA’s self-promotion misleading
The on-going self-promotion by the PNA as the Western and Central Pacific’s saviour for tuna is blatantly misleading and a farce.
Continually playing on their “disadvantaged” situation as developing economies and small Islands States, it is only the PNA member countries themselves that have continued to license fishing vessels to fish in their EEZs (Exclusive Economic Zones) in their greedy effort to maximise foreign earnings from the tuna resources that migrate through their EEZs.
Of course, the DWFNs (Distant Water Fishing Nations) have provided that effort—but that would come to an end if the PNA didn’t keep offering the DWFNs the opportunity.
Pew, Greenpeace and WWF still don’t get it—the high seas pockets were never closed for conservation reasons.
The PNA placed a condition of access to their EEZs on an undertaking not to fish the high seas purely for economic reasons—to force more revenue generating effort into their zones. Simple evidence of this is in the increase in EEZ effort, in vessel days, since the closures were introduced (and by more than 30% since the PNA agreed to the original hard limit in 2004). And the PNA wants more.
Far from their conservation rhetoric, the PNA has suddenly changed its tune with the US on the multilateral treaty renegotiation.
As soon as the US dangled US$58 million/year in front of them, the PNA immediately started to sing a different tune—to the extent of inviting the US to support the PNA’s idea of revising the 2004 hard limit up to 2010 levels!
The commonsense approach would be to use the US position to leverage similar commitments and returns from other fleets—including reducing their effort to prevent a blowout in agreed hard limits on effort—but too many of the PNAs are too close to some of the other fleets to be able to take that route.
PNAs are deluding themselves and unfortunately taking others, including the future generations of Pacific Islanders, along with them.
- P J Johnson, Papua New Guinea
Thank you Meredith---enjoy your US university time!
Posted by: Nancy | August 14, 2012 at 10:05 AM
I really enjoyed reading your articles. They take me back to my home of Hoskins, in the WNB region. I am currently in the United States attending University but hope to return once I have finished. Reading this has made me remember PNG and It has made me smile while at the same ponder some of the topics you have written about.
Thanks for posting! You have a real talent for writing.
Posted by: Meredith | August 12, 2012 at 10:07 PM