Tri Marine Advocates Control of Fishing Capacity
Philip Roberts and Adrian Wickham join delegates in Pohnpei

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 12, 2005

Philip Roberts, Director of Operations of Tri Marine International Pte Ltd in Singapore, and Adrian Wickham, General Manager of National Fisheries Developments Ltd of Solomon Islands joined more than 220 people from the tuna industry, non-government organizations, tuna research and management institutions and representing 30 countries and territories have gathered in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia for the Second Session of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission. Officially established just 12 months ago, following 4 years of intensive negotiations, the Commission has only in the last 2 months been able to establish a secretariat presence in Pohnpei.

The current Chairman of the Commission, Mr Glenn Hurry from Australia, said “The main issues on the agenda for the Second Session will be related to the increasing concern about the status of the region’s bigeye and yellowfin tuna stocks”. He advised that the Commission’s decision-making in relation to this will be assisted by reports from two subsidiary bodies that met earlier in the year. The Scientific Committee met in Noumea in August. The report of that Committee suggests that both tuna species are currently being overfished and that there is a need to reduce the current level of catch and effort. The Technical and Compliance Committee, which met in Pohnpei last week, considered the options available to the Commission to achieve a reduced catch of bigeye and yellowfin.

Tri Marine advocates the effective management and control of fishing in the Western and Central Pacific and supports efforts of the Commission to limit the capacity of purse seiners. Click here to view Tri Marine’s position paper on purse seiner capacity.