Nauru now has twelve tuna purse-seiners fishing under its flag as it moves away from leasing fishing rights to foreign vessels to having its own fleet, Fiskeforum reported.
This shift has been complicated by Western and Central Pacific tuna fisheries being already fished up to their precautionary biological limits, so any Pacific Island state wishing to go down this route has to acquire fishing capacity, as simply adding new vessels is not an option.
Nauru's legislative requirements have been fulfilled with an additional shipping act, a revision of the fisheries act, and the appointment of a registrar, according to the Nauru Fisheries and Maritime Resources Authority (NFMRA). The island has now reflagged twelve purse seiners, including from South Korea and the US.
"Ever since the purse seine fishery started in the 1980s, Nauru has been leasing its fishing grounds to foreign vessels. We actually have the richest purse seine fishing grounds in the Pacific, if the amount of fish caught per square kilometer is any indication, but so far we have not been able to do more than take rent. And with the help of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) vessel day scheme I think we have now maximized the rental side of things," said NFMRA CEO Charleston Deiye.
"The next step – developing our own fisheries industry – is riskier, but it is the only way of getting more value out of our renewable resources than simply renting them out to others. Once the new port is finished, we also want to start landing some fish in Nauru and do local processing as well as in-port transshipment, but this is the first step on the value chain – to actually start catching the fish," Deiye added.