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A packing plant worker in the Marshall Islands prepares marlin and swordfish for export.
Enlarge imageThis includes improving fishing technologies on the ships and ignoring already inadequate rules put in place to protect fish stocks and marine ecosystems.
As fisheries collapse around the world, distant water fishing nations (DWFNs) move further from their own shores to catch fish in other regions. This practice is frighteningly unsustainable.
The Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) is a classic example of this exploitative fishing practice. Instead of reducing their fishing effort and the number of boats when they fish out their own fishing grounds, countries like China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the US, and the EU simply move on to the next fishing ground – the Pacific.
Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUUS) pirate fishers are also moving into the WCPO, rapidly robbing the region of its life.
The future of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, and of everyone who lives from it, is at the mercy of unscrupulous fishers and a growing global appetite for tuna.
Global tuna consumption is increasing with producers diversifying products and adding value locally.
Japan is the world’s biggest consumer of fresh and frozen tuna at 30 per cent of global tuna production, while the European Union (EU) consumes 40 per cent of the global canned tuna market.
Pacific people have fished the ocean for thousands of years, managing traditional fishing grounds sustainably.
As fisheries collapse around the world, distant water fishing nations (DWFNs) move further from their own shores to catch fish in other regions. This practice is frighteningly unsustainable.
The Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) is a classic example of this exploitative fishing practice. Instead of reducing their fishing effort and the number of boats when they fish out their own fishing grounds, countries like China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the US, and the EU simply move on to the next fishing ground – the Pacific.
Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUUS) pirate fishers are also moving into the WCPO, rapidly robbing the region of its life.
The future of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, and of everyone who lives from it, is at the mercy of unscrupulous fishers and a growing global appetite for tuna.
Global tuna consumption is increasing with producers diversifying products and adding value locally.
Japan is the world’s biggest consumer of fresh and frozen tuna at 30 per cent of global tuna production, while the European Union (EU) consumes 40 per cent of the global canned tuna market.
Pacific people have fished the ocean for thousands of years, managing traditional fishing grounds sustainably.
