[ad_1]
The Department of Fisheries and Forestry will host the 21st Annual Meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) this year.
New Minister Alitia Bainivalu stressed during the debate on the 2024-2025 National Budget on Monday that 550 participants from all over the world will gather in Suva to discuss the region’s tuna resources and their development.
“A total of $744,918 has been allocated to the Inshore Fisheries Management Division to support its Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) system to combat illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing in Fiji’s offshore sector,” Ms Bainivalu said.
“$837,666 has been awarded for fisheries research and development to support ongoing work including identification of commercially exploited species, regional scale stock assessments of species, and development of species throughout their life cycle.
“In terms of technical services, $123,024 has been allocated to purchase technical equipment to assist in the maintenance and repair of the technical equipment of the ministry, which currently has 23 ice plants, 32 service centres and 43 institutional dormitories spread across four departments.”
Mrs Bainivalu said for the development of aquaculture, $1,875,866 has been allocated to provide technical equipment to support staff and further supplement the development of capital construction.
[ad_2]
Source link
