10 December 2012: Scientists from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) have urged negotiators working on a tuna fish stocks management mechanism for the Western Central Pacific to agree on reference points to drive the process.

The message was delivered during a two-day management workshop, held during the annual meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), which convened from 2-6 December 2012, in Manila, the Philippines.

SPC scientists recommend that Pacific tuna fisheries be managed using long-term objectives based on both economic outcomes, such as revenue and employment, and environmental outcomes, such as fish stock sustainability. They suggest adoption of: limit reference points, which set minimum allowable stock size or maximum allowable fishing effort; target reference points, which set a stock size or level of fishing effort that ensures optimum benefits, based on ecological, social and economic factors; and harvest control rates, setting pre-agreed actions when a target reference point is met.

The Western and Central Pacific totaled US$5.5 billion in tuna catches in 2011. SPC notes that while not all tuna are at risk, stocks of all four main species have reached historic lows. SPC’s work on reference points is supported by AUSAID, EU, WCPFC, the World Bank and Pew Charitable Trusts. [SPC Press Release]