Speaking at the plenary session of the UN Ocean Conference in New York, Waqa said this “is a criminal act, akin to piracy, and must be addressed with urgency.”
He said the nation's landmass is only 21 square kilometres and the exclusive economic zone is over 15,000 times larger and its economic survival depends on tuna.
Waqa urged governments, businesses and civil society to support the Tuna 2020 Traceability Declaration to ensure that all tuna products can be tracked from the vessel where the fish is caught to the final buyer.
