Cook Islands
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Capturing Wealth from Tuna Key Issues for Pacific Island Countries COUNTRY PROFILES Kate Barclay Ian Cartwright June 2006 Capturing Wealth From Tuna Country Profiles © Copyright 2006, Kate Barclay and Ian Cartwright Photograph on Cover Soltai Fishing and Processing Ltd pole-and-line fishing vessel, Noro, Solomon Islands. Photograph taken by Kate Barclay July 2005. 2 Capturing Wealth From Tuna Country Profiles Table of Contents Cook Islands...................................................................................................................5 Tuna Fisheries in Cook Islands..................................................................................5 Development Aspirations and Tuna.........................................................................23 Issues Affecting Pacific Island Bloc Cooperation within the WCPFC....................29 Details of Fisheries and Processing .........................................................................33 Fiji................................................................................................................................37 Tuna Fisheries in Fiji ...............................................................................................37 Development Aspirations and Tuna.........................................................................57 Issues Affecting Pacific Island Bloc Cooperation within the WCPFC....................64 Details of Fisheries and Processing .........................................................................67 Kiribati .........................................................................................................................71 Tuna Fisheries in Kiribati ........................................................................................71 Development Aspirations and Tuna.........................................................................97 Issues Affecting Pacific Island Bloc Cooperation within the WCPFC..................105 Details of Fisheries and Processing .......................................................................109 Marshall Islands.........................................................................................................113 Tuna Fisheries in Marshall Islands ........................................................................113 Development Aspirations and Tuna.......................................................................125 Details of Fisheries and Processing .......................................................................129 Papua New Guinea.....................................................................................................137 Tuna Fisheries in PNG...........................................................................................137 Development Aspirations and Tuna.......................................................................153 Issues Affecting Pacific Island Bloc Cooperation within the WCPFC..................167 Details of Fisheries and Processing .......................................................................169 Solomon Islands.........................................................................................................173 Tuna Fisheries in Solomon Islands........................................................................174 Development Aspirations and Tuna.......................................................................198 Details of Fisheries and Processing .......................................................................214 Personal Communications Details .............................................................................217 References..................................................................................................................222 3 COOK ISLANDS Population (estimated 2004) 14,000 Population change -1.2% Surface area – land 237 (km2) Surface area – EEZ 1,830,000 (km2) GDP per capita (US$) 9,255 (2005) Life expectancy at birth (yrs) M: 68 F: 74 Adult literacy rate 93% Infant mortality rate per 18 1,000 live births Notes: Population change represents average from 2001- 2005. GDP (gross domestic product) per capita indicates the total domestic economy divided by the total population Sources: Cook Islands (ADB 2005); Human Development Reports (UNDP 2004a); Pacific Island Populations (SPC c.2005). 120E 130E 140E 150E 160E 170E 180 170W 160W 150W 140W 130W Minami Hawaii Tori Shima Nothern 20N Marianas Wake 20N Johnston Marshall Islands Guam 10N Federated States of Micronesia 10N Palmyra Palau Howland 0 Nauru & Baker 0 Papua New Guinea Kiribati Kiribati Jarvis Kiribati (Phoenix) (Line Indonesia Tuvalu Islands) Solomon Islands Tokelau 10S Cook Islands 10S Wallis Samoa Am. Vanuatu & Futuna Fiji Samoa Tonga Australia Niue 20S New French Polynesia 20S Caledonia Matthew Pitcairn & Hunter Norfolk 30S 30S 40S 40S New Zealand 50S 50S 120E 130E 140E 150E 160E 170E 180 170W 160W 150W 140W 130W Source: Colin Millar and Youngmi Choi, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Noumea, New Caledonia. Capturing Wealth From Tuna Country Profiles Cook Islands After frequent contact by Spanish, British and French explorers since 1595, Cook Islands was named by Russian cartographers in the early 1800s in honour of the British Captain Cook. Cook Islands was formally annexed by New Zealand in 1900, then gained independence in 1965. The country is ‘self governing in association with New Zealand’ and Cook Islanders have rights to New Zealand citizenship. Around 50-70,000 Cook Islanders live in New Zealand and around 10,000 in Australia. Tuna Fisheries in Cook Islands Potential The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) estimated a total allowable catch (TAC) for the Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 44,000mt for the surface fishery (purse seine and pole-and-line) and 6,000mt for the longline fishery (Chapman 2001). A surface fishery has not been developed1 but there is a small longline fishery, but the maximum annual catch (3,004mt in 2004) has remained below the TAC. This started out mostly as a distant water access fishery but since 2000 distant water access has been banned as part of a domestic tuna industry development policy. The southern fishery is seasonal (particularly yellowfin), apparently affected by water currents, sea surface temperatures and the algal levels in the waters (Mitchell 2001). In the southern fishery the best months are August and November, with low catch months in January through March (Ministry of Marine Resources [MMR] 2004). It is commercially viable to fish from May to November, but after that it is not worth fishing (York, pers. comm.). The northern fishery runs from March or April to November, with peak months in July, August and November (Garnier, pers. comm.). History of Development Cook Islands’ commercial tuna fisheries started in the 1990s, as two distinct longline fisheries. A small fishery of two to three vessels started in the southern group of islands based at Rarotonga in 1994, targeting chilled sashimi grade fish airfreighted out to Japanese and USA markets (via Auckland). Some was also sold to New Zealand and to local restaurants and hotels. These companies targeted bigeye and yellowfin, but also caught albacore, swordfish, marlin, mahi mahi, wahoo and other similar species. These companies were joint ventures with foreign-owned vessels being based locally. The vessels ranged from 16–32m in length, 30–180 GRT. In 1996 the first fully locally owned and operated longline vessel was registered. Another longline fishery started in Cook Islands in 1998 in the northern part of the EEZ, targeting albacore to be frozen on the fishing vessels, which then took the fish back to base in Pago Pago, American Samoa. This fleet was made up of three to four vessels with large enough frozen storage capacity to stay out fishing for two to three months at a time. These companies were entirely foreign owned and operated. The northern albacore is less seasonal than the southern fishery targeting yellowfin and 1 There has never been a pole-and-line fishery in Cook Islands. There has never been a purse seine fishery in Cook Islands, although Cook Islands is signatory to the USA multilateral treaty for access for the USA purse seine fleet. 5 Capturing Wealth From Tuna Country Profiles bigeye (Mitchell 2001). In the north the best fishing months are May and September- October, with low months in March and July-August (MMR 2004). The catch per unit of effort (CPUE) has been greater in the northern fishery than in the southern fishery. The average CPUE in 1998 for the northern albacore fishery was 55kg per 100 hooks, which was favourable compared to the regional average, but this dropped to less than 30kg per 100 hooks in 1999, possibly due to a La Niña event (Mitchell 2001). From 1995-2000, about 1,230mt of fish (mostly albacore) from the Cook Islands EEZ was landed at Pago Pago (MMR c.2003). The northern fishery has always been larger than the southern fishery by volume, in 2004 accounting for 77.1% of the catch (MMR 2004). Albacore has always made up the largest part of the total catch. Even in the southern fishery, which does not target it, albacore made up the largest single species in the catch (Mitchell 2001; MMR c.2003, 2004). For the three years 2002-2004, albacore made up 43% of the southern catch (Bertram, pers. comm.). Other species in the southern catch composition for 2003 included big eye (11%), yellowfin (8%) swordfish (25%)2, blue marlin (13%), mahi mahi (4%), striped marlin (3%) and others (8%). The largest market