144 B16. PACIFIC ISLANDS REGION by Robert D. Gillett * Figure B16.1 - EEZs of Pacific Island countries and territories, and the SPC statistical area INTRODUCTION This section covers an area of the Pacific Ocean that streches across the Eastern half of FAO statistical area 71 and the Northern part of FAO statistical area 77 that constitutes a distinctive fisheries region (Figure B16.1), with numerous islands countries and territories members of the South Pacific Commission (SPC). The review in this sector is largely based on an earlier FAO report on the area (Gillett, 2002). nutrient runoff, resulting in low enrichment of the The political entities of the Pacific Islands are nearby sea. The ocean waters of the area are characterized by large exclusive economic zones usually clear and low in productivity. Upwelling (EEZs) and mostly very small land areas. The occurs in the boundaries between currents and in total area of the region’s EEZs is estimated to be other localized areas, and have important 30 569 000. km ., equivalent to about 28 percent implications for the harvesting of marine of the world’s EEZ area. The land area is resources. 552 789 km2, of which 461 690 km2 (84 percent) is in Papua New Guinea. The dispersed nature of the region’s land among this vast area of water has several consequences In general, the islands increase in size from east for fisheries management. In regard to inshore to west. Most islands rise steeply from the deep resources, the presence of numerous patches of ocean floor and have very little shelf area. Coral land and their associated coastal and coral reef reefs characteristically surround the islands, areas, separated by large distances and sometimes either close to the shore (fringing reef) or further abyssal depths, means that many species with offshore (barrier reef), in which case a coastal limited larval dispersal can be effectively lagoon is enclosed. The area includes many managed as unit stocks. On the other hand, atolls, which are the remnant barrier reefs of management of shared stocks of highly migratory islands that have subsided. Some of the more species such as tunas can only be effective if recent islands in the area lack coral reefs. carried out on a multi-national basis. The Mangrove forests often border the inshore waters, presence of extensive areas of international especially of the larger islands, and provide waters (high seas) among the region’s EEZs habitat for the juveniles of many important food greatly complicates the region’s fishery fish. management efforts. Because of the relatively small size of most The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC, islands, major bodies of fresh water are not formerly the South Pacific Commission, widespread in the sub-region, with substantial http://www.spc.int), as a service to its member rivers and lakes only being found in some of the governments, regularly compiles detailed larger islands of Melanesia. The small land areas statistics for the oceanic fisheries. Most of this of most islands create limited freshwater and * Gillett, Preston and Associates Inc. 145 chapter is based on theses Figure B16.2 Boundaries of the Western and Central Pacific as used by FFA statistics and other estimates produced in various forms Western and Central by the Forum Fisheries 40N Pacific Ocean Agency (FFA) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), whose statistical area grouping (Figure B16.2) do not correspond to the SPC region (Figure 0 20N B16.1) nor to the FAO statistic areas. 20S Several different geographic areas are used to describe Eastern Pacific the “region” for fisheries 40S Ocean purposes. In roughly 120E 140E 160E 180 160W 140W 120W 100W 80W descending size, the areas are: the central and western Pacific ocean, the US South Pacific Tuna Treaty area, SPC statistical area, FAO statistical area 71, Fisheries SPC area, and the EEZs of Pacific Island FFA- member states. Since 1999 SPC usually reports Pacific Island fisheries can be categorized in regional tuna information for the Western and several ways. One of the most commonly used is Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO). Accordingly, the scale of the operation: unless otherwise noted the regional tuna catches industrial fisheries, which are almost given below are for the WCPO. exclusively for tunas and allied species. (The only other industrial fishery in the region is Fishery Resources for prawns, in Papua New Guinea.); small-scale commercial fisheries, which can The region’s fishery resources can be broadly be broadly sub-divided into those producing split into two main categories: oceanic, and export commodities, and those supplying coastal or inshore. domestic markets; and Oceanic resources include tunas, billfish and subsistence fisheries, which support rural allied species. They are characterized by an economies and which are extremely important open-water pelagic habitat, potentially to the region’s nutrition and food security. extensive individual movements, and wide larval dispersal. These resources form the basis It has been estimated that there are about 25 000 of the region’s industrial fisheries. Although non-motorized and 17 000 motorized fishing oceanic in habit, some of the important species vessels operating in the Pacific Islands (McCoy, in this category are also found and harvested in 1991). These range from simple canoes to coastal waters, where in some cases they are sophisticated purse seiners over 70 m in length, thought to form essentially resident many of which are equipped with helicopters. populations. The distinction between subsistence and Coastal or inshore resources include a wide commercial fishing is becoming increasingly range of finfish and invertebrates. They are blurred in many areas as monetization of rural characterized by their shallow water habitats or economies proceeds and growing amounts of demersal life-styles, restriction of individual marine produce are traded for cash. In addition, movements to coastal areas, and, in most cases, the region’s principal coastal fishery export more restricted larval dispersal. Because of products (trochus and bêche-de-mer) are their relative accessibility, these resources form produced in a manner which resembles the basis of most of the region’s small-scale subsistence rather than commercial fishing. fisheries. 146 Tuna is the most important fishery, as it coastal fisheries for the 22 countries and produces almost ten times more than all the other territories in the Pacific Islands. fisheries of the region combined in volume and over seven times more in value (Table B16.1). The Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) The landed value of tuna catches from the region headquartered in the Solomon Islands was estimated at about US$375 million in 1982 http://www.ffa.int is concerned primarily with (Clark, 1983), US$1.2 billion in 1993 (World economic and policy aspects of the offshore Bank, 1995), US$1.6 billion in 1994 (FFA, tuna fisheries in the 14 independent Pacific 1995), US$1.7 billion in 1995 (FFA, 1996), and Island countries plus Australia and New $1.9 billion in 1998 (Van Santen and Muller, Zealand. The FFA has achieved a high degree 2000). of success in coordination leading to the regional and international treaties. Table B16.1 Estimated production volume and value of Pacific Island fisheries, 1999 (from Gillett et al., 2001) The South Pacific Regional Environment Category Volume (t) Value (US$) Programme (SPREP) headquartered in Apia Industrial tuna 1 074 113 1 900 000 000 Samoa http://www.sprep.org.ws has a number Prawn 946 9 043 618 of initiatives relevant to the fisheries of the Commercial 83 914 179 914 623 Subsistence 24 327 81 800 664 region, including work on protected species, Total 1 183 300 2 170 758 905 marine biodiversity, and the Pacific Islands component of the International Waters Programme of the Global Environment Regional fisheries cooperation Facility. Fisheries cooperation, fostered by the regional In addition, there are regional programmes organizations, is a prominent feature of the important to fisheries at the University of the Pacific Islands. The region has three South Pacific (USP) and the South Pacific organizations with major involvement in fisheries Applied Geo-Science Commission (SOPAC) matters and several others with peripheral http://www.sopac.org.fj/, and the Forum involvement: Secretariat. The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) http://www.spc.org.nc/ headquartered in OCEANIC RESOURCES New Caledonia has a fisheries programme which is primarily concerned with scientific research on the tuna fisheries and with Resource status research, development, and management of the About 1.6 million tonnes of tuna, as well as an unknown amount of by-catch, have been caught in the western and central Pacific each year in the Figure B16.3 - Tuna catches in the Western and Central Pacific 1971-2001 ('000t) 1990s. According to the SPC Standing Committee on Tuna and Billfish (Lewis and 2 000 Williams, 2002), the estimated total tuna catch Skipjack for 2002 was 2 005 000t, the highest total catch Yellowfin on record after 1998 2 037 602t with four main 1 5 0 0 Bigeye tuna species in the catch (Figure B16.3) Albacore http://www.spc.int/OceanFish/. 1 0 0 0 Skipjack tuna contribute two thirds of the WCPO catch of the four main tuna species. The best available estimates indicate that the 2002 500 skipjack catch was approximately 1.32 million tonnes (the highest on record), with purse-seine fleets providing the majority of this catch 0 (70 percent). Available indicators (purse seine, 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 pole-and-line) show variable catch rates over Source SPC time in the fishery. 147 Yellowfin tuna catch increased since Figure B16.4 Location of the Warm Pool (within 29°C isotherm) and the 1980s, when the purse-seine US purse-seine tuna catches during (top) La Niña and (bottom) El Niño events (from Lehodey et al., 1997) fishery began its significant expansion in the WCPO.