September 2017 No Images? Click here Newsletter of the Western & Central Pacific Fisheries Commission Secretariat for members, participating territories and observers.
Executive Director, Feleti P Teo, OBE Welcome to the second & third edition of the ‘Secretariat Quarterly’ for 2017, the e-newsletter that updates you on Commission news and the work of the WCPFC Secretariat team. Greetings from Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia the home of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission. As this edition of the newsletter goes out, the participants to the 13th regular session of the Technical and Compliance Committee (TCC13) have gathered in Pohnpei for six days of intense deliberations. Central to their deliberations is the Commission’s Compliance Monitoring Scheme (CMS), a scheme that facilitates the assessment of compliance of Commission members in implementing their obligations under the Commission Convention and Conservation and Management Measures (CMM) adopted by the Commission. Mindful that those obligations are legally binding, the CMS must be robust and efficient in its delivery so that it achieves its core objectives of undertaking the assessment of compliance and improving the capacity of members to comply with their obligations. The Commission has sanctioned an independent review of the CMS and a review panel has been constituted for that purpose. Two members of the review panel will be in attendance at TCC13 to observe and to undertake consultations with delegates and stakeholders. The panel is expected to provide its review report to members in March next year. The TCC13 meeting will be followed immediately by a one day meeting to progress the Draft Bridging CMM on South Pacific Albacore. This one day meeting was in response to the tasking by the Commission in its annual meeting last year, for New Zealand on behalf of the FFA members to coordinate an intersessional process to progress the discussions of the draft CMM. Since the last edition of the newsletter, the Commission has had its regular session of the Scientific Committee for this year beautifully hosted in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. The key outcomes of that meeting are shared in this edition. The week after the Scientific Committee, the Commission met in Honolulu, Hawaii from 22 to 24 August in an intersessional meeting to progress the Draft Bridging CMM on tropical Tuna. The intersessional meeting chaired by the Commission Chair Ms Rhea Moss-Christian was able to progress the negotiations by producing a revised edition of the draft CMM (Rev5) which was circulated on 8th September. The Honolulu negotiations were progressive in that members were able to identify the priority issues that remain outstanding and the extent of efforts needed to resolve them. The engagement of members was constructive and there appeared to be a positive momentum and spirit to work towards a meaningful and effective measure. The members agreed to convene a one day meeting dedicated to further progressing the draft Bridging CMM on tropical Tuna before the 14th regular session of the Commission (WCPFC14). This meeting will be held on Friday 1st December, 2017 in Manila, Philippines. As we approach the last quarter of 2017, the Secretariat has been in regular contact with the Philippines the host of WCPFC14. As formally advised, the dates of WCPFC14 will be from the Sunday 3rd to Thursday 7th of December, 2017 and has been confirmed recently to be held at the Philippines International Convention Center in Manila. The meeting of the Finance and Administration Committee will be on Saturday 2nd December together with the usual meeting of Heads of Delegations. I wish the delegates to the TCC13 meeting successful deliberation and do take time to visit your Secretariat premises. Third quarter Update on 2017 Compliance and MCS ProgrammeThe Secretariat has had a busy 6 months of Monitoring, Compliance and Surveillance (MCS) /compliance preparations with the successful completion of the draft Compliance Monitoring Reports (CMR) and TCC is being hosted in Pohnpei from 27 September to 3 October. Members, cooperating non-members and participating territories (CCMs) have been recently advised of the draft CMR completion. Additional updates based on the latest WCPFC observer data set, WCPFC member High Seas Boarding and Inspection activities and other MCS surveillance activities were also notified to CCMs through expanded online Compliance Case File System. Additional information is provided to CCMs through the TCC documention, but if you need further assistance, please contact our Compliance Manager, Dr Lara Manarangi-Trott (lara.manarangi-trott@wcpfc.int) or Assistant Compliance Manager, ‘Ana F. Taholo (ana.taholo@wcpfc.int). In addition to routine Compliance Monitoring Scheme preparations, there are a number of other Compliance/MCS activities that the Secretariat has been involved intersessionally including of note:- 1. Providing support to the three member Independent Review Panel who were appointed to undertake the Review of the Compliance Monitoring Scheme; 2. Planning of routine Regional Observer Programme (ROP) audits scheduled for 2017, including the observer programmes of China, Cook Islands, Korea, Papua New Guinea and Chinese Taipei; 3. A new initiative supported by Areas Beyong National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) and the International MCS Network to facilitate closer collaboration amongst tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMO) compliance officer counterparts (see separate news item); 4. Completing the necessary in-house work to complete the delivery of some online publishing lists as requested by TCC; and 5. Scoping and developing a work plan for implementation of MCS/compliance E-reporting at the Secretariat and developing a draft standards for the E-reporting of high seas transshipment notices and declarations. During 2017, our Compliance/MCS Secretariat staff have been working alongside CCM delegates who were participating in national and subregional trainings and workshops including: · WCPFC/Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) “Cross Endorsement” training, Pohnpei, 30 January – 3 February (ROP Coordinator, Karl Staisch and ROP Data Quality Officer, Donald David) · Regional Observer Coordinators Meeting, Nadi, Fiji 5 – 12 February (ROP Coordinator, Karl Staisch and ROP Data Quality Officer, Donald David) · Sub-regional E-Monitoring Workshop, Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands 20 – 25 February (Compliance Manager, Dr Lara Manarangi-Trott) · Indonesia Observer Training, Manado, Indonesia 7 – 20 March (ROP Coordinator, Karl Staisch) · Pacific Islands Regional Preparatory Meeting for the UN Oceans Conference, Suva, Fiji 12 – 18 March (Compliance Manager, Dr Lara Manarangi-Trott) · Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) - hosted MCS Working Group including CCM Annual Report Part 2 assistance, Honiara, Solomon Islands 4 – 8 April: (Assistant Compliance Manager, ‘Ana Taholo) · Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) - hosted Tuna Data Workshop including CCM Annual Report Part 1 assistance, Noumea, New Caledonia 21 – 30 April: (Assistant Compliance Manager, ‘Ana Taholo) · SPC-hosted Observer Debriefing Training, Pohnpei, 15 – 26 May and SPC observer training, August (ROP Coordinator, Karl Staisch and ROP Data Quality Officer, Donald David) · Philippines Observer Training, Manila 25 May – 9 June (ROP Coordinator, Karl Staisch) WCPFC Assistant Compliance Manager with tuna Regional Fishery Management Organization officers at the inception workshop to launch an informal network of compliance officers of tuna RFMOs in Vigo, Spain, 29 Mar 2017 WCPFC Participates at a Workshop to Enhance Collaboration Amongst Tuna RFMO Compliance OfficersOn 27 – 29 March 2017, Compliance Officers from the five tuna Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs) gathered in the premises of the Port Authority in Vigo, Spain, for the inception workshop to launch an informal network of compliance officers of tuna RFMOs, with the objective of sharing knowledge and experiences among compliance officers and other Monitoring Control and Surveillance (MCS) experts. This informal network is hosted under the International Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Network (IMCSN). WCPFC was represented by our Assistant Compliance Manager ‘Ana Taholo. Also present at the workshop were, among others, representatives from the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and of the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC), and representatives of the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), FISH-i Africa, and IHS Maritime & Trade and International MCS Network. On 29-30 March 2017, the representatives from the five tuna RFMOs gathered at the ICCAT premises in Madrid to discuss ways and identify areas of common interest in which they can share experiences on. This workshop is part of a broader support strategy by the FAO Common Oceans ABNJ Tuna Project aiming at strengthening MCS efforts in world tuna fisheries by developing tools to assist in the combat against Illegal, Unreported & Unregulated (IUU) fishing and encouraging and enhancing closer collaboration between compliance officers of the five tuna RFMOs. The network of compliance officers of tuna RFMOs aims at fostering the exchange of information, experience and expertise among worldwide professionals on compliance, Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) and related issues in tuna fisheries. Figure 1. Catch (mt) of albacore, bigeye, skipjack and yellowfin in the WCPF Convention Area The 13th Scientific CommitteeThe 13th Regular Session of the Scientific Committee (SC13) took place in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, 9-17 August, with opening addresses by the Honourable Mark Brown, Minister for Finance and acting Prime Minister, Cook Islands, the SC Chair Berry Muller, and the Executive Director Feleti Teo. The session covered all standard agenda items such as the review of the Pacific tuna fisheries, tuna catch data gaps, stock assessments of key tunas and sharks, development of a harvest strategy framework, bycatch mitigation issues, SC work programme and budget, and other administrative matters.Key outputs from the SC13 are summarized below.The provisional total tuna catch for 2016 in the Convention Area was estimated at 2,717,850 mt, the second highest on record and nearly 120,000 mt below the previous record catch in 2014 (2,851,087 mt); this catch represented 79% of the total Pacific Ocean catch of 3,406,269 mt, and 56% of the global tuna catch (the provisional estimate for 2016 is 4,795,867 mt, and when finalised was expected to be the second highest on record). The breakdown of 2016 tuna catch is that: · skipjack catch (1,816,650 mt – 67% of the total catch) was the fourth highest recorded, nearly 160,000 mt less than the record in 2014 (1,977,019 mt); · yellowfin catch (650,491 mt – 24%) was the highest recorded (more than 40,000 mt higher than the previous record catch of 2008 – 609,458 mt), mainly due to increased catches in the purse seine fishery and the Indonesia and Philippines domestic fisheries; · bigeye catch (152,806 mt – 6%) was an increase on 2015 catch and around average for the past ten years; and albacore catch (97,822 mt – 4%) was the lowest since 1996 and around 50,000 mt lower than the record catch in 2002 at 147,793 mt; and · the provisional south Pacific albacore (68,601 mt) was about 13,000 mt lower than in 2015 and nearly 20,000 mt lower than the record catch in 2010 of 87,292 mt. (Refer to Table 1 and Figure 1) Regarding data-related issues, SC13 reviewed a research on large-scale purse seine fishery bycatch at a regional scale, where rainbow runner, silky shark, oceanic triggerfish, mackerel scad and mahi-mahi were the most frequently observed bycatch species recorded by observers, and recommended that the estimates of bycatch in the longline fisheries be presented at SC14. SC13 also reviewed FAD data fields to be provided by both vessel operators and observers, and a proposal for the development of guidelines for the voluntary provision of economic data to the Commission by CCMs. SC13 reviewed 2017 stock assessments for bigeye, yellowfin, North Pacific albacore, North Pacific blue sharks, and risk assessments for the southern hemisphere porbeagle and Pacific bigeye thresher shark. Among these, the bigeye stock assessment were highlighted at SC13 because of new information on growth curve and changes in spatial structure for assessment, resulting in significant changes in stock status and management implications toward optimistic directions. However, SC13 recommended that, for bigeye tuna, the Commission continue to consider measures to reduce fishing mortality from fisheries that take juveniles, and as a precautionary approach that the fishing mortality on bigeye tuna stock should not be increased from current level. Other administrative matters include: a) for science projects in 2018, a total budget of USD 1,889.024 was recommended for the Commission’s approval, including USD 500,000 for the Pacific Tagging Project; b) both SC Chair and Vice-chair will be selected at the Commission meeting in December 2017; and c) SC13 confirmed that SC14 would be held in Busan, Korea, during 8 – 16 August 2018, and Samoa offered to host SC15 in 2019. WCPFC in the community From June 30 to July 29, three Chinese students from the Shanghai Ocean University participated in an internship with WCPFC. Over the last couple months, the Secretariat’s annex building has been used by SPC, International Organization for Migration (IOM), Peace Corps, FSM Public Auditor's Office, FSM National Oceanic Resource Management Authority, FSM Department of Education, Vital-FSM Petroleum Corporation, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and FFA for trainings or meetings. ENDS We welcome new readers to Secretariat Quarterly. Just click the subscribe button and we'll add you to the recipients list.
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