The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) has a mandate to sustainably manage and ensure long-term conservation of all highly migratory fish stocks, including tunas and sharks, in the western and central Pacific Ocean. However, the Commission’s handling of some migratory fish stocks currently falls short of that mandate and global expectations of best practices, though the WCPFC Convention text incorporates relatively modern principles of fisheries management.
Despite strong scientific and management advice to the Commission, the conservation and management measures (CMMs) now in place are inadequate to end or prevent overfishing of some key stocks. Two of the six commercial tuna stocks managed by WCPFC—Pacific bluefin and bigeye tuna—continue to be fished unsustainably. In addition, while some progress has been made on the conservation and management of sharks, much more is needed to ensure that both targeted and incidental catch of sharks is sustainable.
Ensuring sustainable fisheries in the WCPFC Convention Area requires strong conservation and management actions and strict compliance with measures already adopted. The Pew Charitable Trusts urges all Commission Members, Cooperating Non-Members, and Participating Territories—known collectively as CCMs—to cooperate and compromise in order to:
Fisheries management in the western and central Pacific must take into consideration the importance of various stocks to the economies of the region and the well-being of the marine ecosystem. In 2014, catches of tuna in the region totaled about 2.85 million metric tons (with an estimated value of more than US$22.68 billion at the final point of sale). That represents 57 percent of the global tuna catch.1
The Commission’s current approach to fisheries management is not adequate to preserve that value or the sustainability of the stocks. Healthy stocks, such as skipjack—which in 2014 accounted for 68 percent of the catch in the region with a value of $2.3 billion—should be managed with a long-term view, rather than to maximize short-term gains. Meanwhile, depleted and overfished stocks of Pacific bluefin and bigeye tuna require urgent action beyond business as usual.
Members of the Commission face important decisions that will determine the degree to which harvest strategies designed in the western and central Pacific are suitably precautionary and promote the long-term sustainability of the stocks. Adoption of CMM 2014-06 two years ago committed the Commission to developing and implementing a six-part harvest strategy approach for each of the key tuna stocks. Last year, the Commission followed that decision by adopting a workplan that established timelines for decision-making. Separately, the WCPFC Chair has circulated a concept paper to adopt a bridging CMM for the transition from the tropical tuna measure that expires in 2017 to implementation of harvest strategies. Harvest strategies are the next innovation in fisheries management. If designed correctly, they benefit both the fish and fishermen.
Reflecting the importance of these stocks, the Commission should adhere to the timelines in the harvest strategy workplan to:
The latest stock assessment for Pacific bluefin tuna, released in 2016, found that nearly a century of overfishing has depleted the population to just 2.6 percent of its historic unfished size. Despite this 97 percent decline, the CMM recommended by the Northern Committee would not end overfishing or implement key elements of a long-term harvest strategy for the species. In fact, an addition to the proposed measure would allow the catch of large bluefin to increase, despite scientific projections showing that there is a less than 1 percent chance that the population will recover under current management measures.
The full WCPFC Commission and its members have the ultimate responsibility for fulfilling the Convention mandate to “maintain or restore stocks at levels capable of producing maximum sustainable yield.” In light of the failure of the Northern Committee to recommend a CMM that would meet this mandate, the Commission should:
The Pacific bluefin population will not recover under current measures and without additional help. If the measures noted above are not in place by 2018, an international trade ban through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) listing should be pursued as the only remaining option to safeguard the species.
Developing measures to effectively manage FADs must be an urgent priority for the Commission and part of a balanced strategy to reduce fishing mortality among juvenile and adult bigeye. Nearly all bigeye harvested by purse seine vessels are juvenile fish taken around FADs. The impact can be seen in the mortality rate for juveniles, which was twice that of adults in the 2014 assessment,4 the most recent full assessment for the stock. Bigeye mortality decreased in the purse seine fishery in 2015, but the conditions that brought that about were not linked to stock management. Oceanographic conditions associated with a strong El Nino may have made bigeye less available in the eastern portion of the Convention Area.5 In addition, some key purse seine fleets did not fish as much as they had in recent years, though they may return to higher levels of effort. Still, even with the unique circumstances of 2015, scientists estimated that the stock continued to experience overfishing and remained overfished at about 16 percent of its unfished spawning biomass. That is below the WCPFC limit reference point of 20 percent of unfished spawning biomass. The need to adopt measures to directly reduce and manage juvenile mortality remains urgent. With the tropical tuna CMM expiring in 2017, the Commission this year should:
Tuna longline fisheries in the western and central Pacific are not effectively managed today, in part because current mechanisms and policies do not ensure sufficient and timely submission of critical data. In 2014, longline vessels caught fish with an end value of almost $4 billion in these waters.6 Given the economic contributions of that sector of the fishery, resource managers should be motivated to ensure its long-term sustainability by addressing gaps in the timely and accurate tracking of longline fishing catch and effort.
Promising new technologies can make required reporting and monitoring much faster and more effective. Information on catches can be relayed in near real-time in more standardized formats using electronic reporting (ER) systems. In addition, the WCPFC can expand observer coverage requirements with limited additional onboard personnel by using proven electronic monitoring (EM) technology.
Technological advances, coupled with the increasing cost-effectiveness of ER and EM systems, can help improve fisheries management and ensure high levels of compliance with conservation and management measures. Near real-time electronic catch reporting improves accountability and accuracy, benefiting authorities, fishing boat owners, and associated industries alike. For these reasons and more, many WCPFC member countries have already embraced these technologies as effective management tools for their domestic fisheries, and more are likely to follow.
Pew calls on members of the WCPFC to:
Illegal, unreported, and misreported transshipment at sea, particularly within the longline sector, contributes significantly to IUU activity unless the movement of catch from vessel to vessel is adequately regulated and controlled. Within the western and central Pacific Ocean region alone, an estimated $142 million a year of tuna and tunalike product is involved in illegal, at-sea transshipment activities.
Pew has advocated for regional fishery management organizations (RFMOs) to ban all forms of at-sea transshipment of fish until there is clear evidence that such operations are legal and verifiable and do not contribute to IUU fishing. Verification remains difficult. Although there is a 100 percent observer coverage requirement on carrier vessels, the WCPFC Secretariat does not currently receive reports from carrier observers, nor does it maintain a database for this information. That means that no cross verification can be done of seafood product reportedly transshipped between vessels on the high seas.
Data and information on transshipment are collected and relayed to various entities, but no single body, including the WCPFC Secretariat, maintains a full and complete picture of this activity from the point of catch to the point of offloading. As such, additional controls to ensure full and effective monitoring of transshipments at sea are needed.
Some RFMOs have banned transshipment at sea for some authorized vessels, such as purse seiners or small- scale longline vessels, demonstrating that such bans are feasible and economically viable. WCPFC member countries have championed similar provisions for the longline sector or called for complete transshipment bans, but so far the Commission has not been able to implement the measures needed to fully control transshipment at sea.
Pew calls on members of the WCPFC to:
About 100 million sharks, an unsustainable number, are caught and killed in commercial fisheries each year.7 Whether this catch is highly sought after or unintended and unwanted, managers must take immediate action to stop the decline in shark populations and mitigate the damage that causes to marine ecosystems.
Until measures are in place to ensure that both targeted and incidental catch of sharks is sustainable, harvest of these animals should be avoided. Those caught should be released alive whenever possible. Fishing gear that increases the likelihood of shark catch, such as wire leaders and shark lines, should be prohibited, and research should be done to determine the best means of avoiding shark catch.
If CCMs are to continue to target sharks, or to catch sharks as bycatch, then the Commission must enact management measures that reflect the precautionary principle. In instances where limited population data for shark species result in uncertain stock assessment results, managers must implement precautionary measures, such as catch limits, that can safeguard these vulnerable stocks.
The Commission also should require that fins be naturally attached when sharks are landed. Adopting this global standard would allow for better enforcement of the WCPFC prohibition on shark finning. Such measures would ensure that all sharks in the Convention Area are sustainably caught and that WCPFC fisheries are not contributing to the global overfishing of sharks.
Stock assessment analyses of shark species are often limited by inadequate datasets, which make it more difficult to formulate comprehensive scientific advice. For example, a limited number of available data sets severely constrained the recent assessment of the South Pacific blue shark. As a result, at its 2016 meeting, the Scientific Committee noted that no management advice could be provided for this stock. In order to safeguard blue sharks until a more reliable assessment can be conducted, the Commission must implement a precautionary cap of effort at current levels. Additionally, improvements to data recording and reporting on the catch of shark species will help ensure sustainable fishing of stocks.
Pew calls on the Commission to:
CMM 2013-08 and CMM 2011-04 prohibit retention of silky sharks and oceanic whitetip sharks in the Convention Area. The Commission implemented these measures to drastically reduce fishing mortality of these highly vulnerable species. However, a separate measure, CMM 2014-05, allows the choice of using either wire trace or shark lines, which undermines these efforts. Removing the choice of gear and imposing a ban of both gear types would reduce fishing-related mortality by 24 percent for silky sharks and 37 percent for oceanic whitetip sharks.8
Pew urges the Commission to:
Having clearly defined components in a shark management plan can safeguard highly vulnerable stocks and ensure an acceptable level of fishing mortality for all shark species caught.
Pew urges the Commission to:
The family Mobulidae, which includes manta rays and mobula rays, is extremely vulnerable to overfishing. Observer reports show that manta and mobula rays are often killed as bycatch in WCPFC purse seine fisheries; 284 metric tons were recorded from 1994 to 2009.9 WCPFC13 should strongly consider the 2016 Scientific Committee advice and recommend that purse seine observer training programs emphasize species identification of Mobulid rays.
Pew urges the Commission to:
Port State measures (PSMs) are cost-effective tools to monitor compliance with management arrangements and prevent illegal fish from entering the market. PSM proposals have been considered by the Commission for several years and also were recommended as part of the WCPFC Performance Review in 2013. Recent efforts to adopt a CMM on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing have fallen short, but the entry into force this year of the international Port States Measures Agreement should provide a strong basis for establishing a regional scheme within the WCPFC. In addition, the Commission’s Technical and Compliance Committee this year discussed the paper produced by the Secretariat10 that summarizes measures adopted by other RFMOs. The Commission must move toward adopting a formal port State measures CMM.
Pew urges the Commission to:
Placing a vessel on WCPFC’s IUU vessel list helps to highlight, and ultimately deter, unacceptable practices in the Convention Area. However, the effectiveness of this list is diminished because vessels found to be engaged in IUU fishing can only be added once a year. As a result, IUU vessels operate unhindered until the Commission meets and CCMs put them on the list. The WCPFC permits vessels to be removed from the IUU vessel list between annual meetings. In the same spirit, the Commission should permit the listing of IUU vessels intersessionally.
Pew calls on members of the WCPFC to:
The Second Joint Meeting of Tuna RFMOs in 2009 recommended that organizations develop robust compliance review mechanisms so that the records of each member of the Commission could be examined on an annual basis. As a result, the WCPFC established a Compliance Monitoring Scheme (CMS) to ensure that CCMs meet their obligations. The CMS is designed to assess CCM compliance. It also helps identify areas where technical assistance or capacity building may be needed and determine aspects of conservation and management measures that require refinement or amendment for effective implementation.
When establishing the Compliance Monitoring Scheme, CCMs said the process would be conducted in a responsible, open, transparent, and nondiscriminatory manner. Such a process would ensure that the
Commission was aware of information relevant to efforts to identify instances of noncompliance and hold parties accountable. To help meet transparency requirements detailed in Article 21 of the Convention and Rule 15 of the Rules of Procedures, the Commission should allow observer access to Compliance Monitoring Review discussions related to development of both Provisional and Final Compliance Monitoring Reports.
Pew urges the Commission to: