Marine resources

The 127,000 square kilometre zone constitutes 40 percent of Niue's exclusive economic zone.

First mooted five years ago, the Moana Mahu has this month been legally established by the Niue parliament.

The reserve will include a special management space area around the partially submerged Beveridge Reef .

This area would be known as the "Beveridge Reef Nukutulueatama Special Management Area" and was considered to have particular importance for its biodiversity.

Next week, the United Nations Oceans' Conference is being held in New York, co-hosted by Fiji and Sweden, with a specific focus on Sustainable Development Goal 14 - namely to conserve and sustainably manage the use of the oceans, seas and marine resources.

Hugh Govan is an advisor with the Locally Managed Marine Area network and had worked with Pacific coastal communities for many years.

He said these communities had lived in harmony with the ocean for thousands of years and they need to be listened to.

A training workshop on Marine Spatial Planning ended last week, it followed on from a Geographic Information Systems workshop which introduced the concept of MSP and its benefits as a training tool.

TIS which has been voicing concern over the purse seine fishing issue for most of the year, has presented an anti-purse seine fishing petition to Parliament bearing 4000-plus signatures.

The organisation’s technical advisor, Kelvin Passfield says TIS is concerned that, in spite of the voting public asking for a ban on purse seining, government has since issued licences to at least two additional fishing companies to fish in Cook Islands waters.

He says this has been done without any disclosure to the public.