Returning to the basic principles of distant-water fisheries management

I have read with interest the debate about the offshore tuna fishery in the Cook Islands News, and as with any topic discussed in any newspaper, the discussion is limited by the space available in print, writes Barbara Hanchard.

The opinion column and reply letter touched on theories of “resident” populations of yellowfin tuna in the north and south of the Cook Islands, the low numbers of yellowfin tuna in the south attributable to six years of purse seine fishing, alleged overfishing in the north, the value of tuna to the Cook Islands economy, and urging lessons from French Polynesia and New Zealand on how to develop a domestic tuna fishery. Oh, and a little accusation against the Ministry of Marine Resources (MMR).

For those who form opinions with little understanding of all the variables, “hoping for younger, better qualified fisheries scientists to explain things” is probably a waste of effort for any desired outcome. However, I think such advice is just insulting. Fighting misinformation or correcting misconceptions often requires much more energy than producing information that lacks critical thinking and reliable sources of information dissemination.

Regardless of which side you are on, the bottom line of any sound logical argument on these issues is “best available science.” On one side, there are those who will use limited data sets and other short-term selective information to support a view they strongly believe in; on the other side, there are those who invest regional resources to understand the status of the region’s “highly migratory” fish stocks, beginning with data collected by the Pacific Community (SPC) for its member Pacific Island countries and territories in the 1950s. Over time, better climate and oceanographic data sets overlaid with catch data have led to better predictions not only of the abundance of tuna stocks in the western and central Pacific, but also of their distribution.

Regardless of which side you fall into, the basic premise is that you are dealing with a marine resource that lives mostly out of sight and is influenced by a complex set of variables. Unlike counting trees in a forest, we cannot do the same with fish. It is therefore shocking to see comments such as: If 10% of juvenile yellowfin tuna caught in northern purse seines went south, there would be 4,200 adult fish available for southern artisanal fisheries to catch. Such unqualified comments only serve to fuel public hysteria.

While we’re getting back to our roots, there’s a common misconception that marine resources or fish are actually “our fish.” I hear this all the time. Countries don’t “own” the fish within their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), but they do have sovereign rights under the Law of the Sea to explore, exploit, conserve, and manage marine resources within that zone. I’m sure the proposal to merge zones with neighboring French Polynesia would go down like a lead balloon for them. But I can see them cheering over the proposal for a 10-year no-take MPA (marine protected area) in the Cook Islands EEZ, which is one of the dumbest proposals ever.

The Cook Islands have allowed foreign fishing vessels to operate in their area for many years, primarily using purse seines to fish for skipjack and longline vessels on the surface for albacore and other tunas and tuna-related species. If I remember correctly, there may have even been a Canadian trolling vessel with an exploration license back in the 1980s. Yes! I’m that old. The Cook Islands is a party to the South Pacific Tuna Treaty signed by the United States, which has allowed US purse seine vessels access to the EEZ since 1987. So there is quite a bit of historical catch data for the Cook Islands area, without having to hype up six years of purse seine data from one fleet, and very little mention of other fishing efforts that contribute to the catch, and no real understanding of the impact of climate conditions on the abundance and distribution of migratory species.

For almost as long as foreign fishing vessels have been licensed in the Cook Islands, the Cook Islands government has maintained a Fishing Aggregate Device (FAD) program throughout the country through the MMR to support artisanal fishing of offshore tuna, as well as low-cost or free ice and machinery to support the relatively small number of artisanal fishing vessels. So when you compare catches to French Polynesia, you need to be aware that the Cook Islands has an estimated 360 artisanal coastal “poti marara” contributing to the local market as well as lagoon and reef fishers within the exclusive economic zone (5,030,000 square kilometers).²), more than twice the size of the Cook Islands (1,830,000 km2)²), with very different land and marine geography. French Polynesia has five archipelagos, 188 islands and atolls, and associated bathymetric and marine ecosystems that support offshore tuna. The differences in fleet size and regional size and geography between neighbouring countries do not seem to have been taken seriously in the debate over the different fishing levels between the two regions and the impact of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycle.

So, apart from a modest joint venture longliner in the 1990s and two or three domestic vessels currently flying the Cook Islands flag, why has the Cook Islands not yet successfully established a local commercial tuna business to supply tuna for domestic consumption or export profit? Some of this is really common sense. There really is no reasonable sized fishing port or shore facilities here, and there probably never will be. The port of Papeete, where 80 domestic longliners land 100% of their catch in French Polynesia, is many times larger than the port of Awatiu. As much as 80% of the tuna caught in French Polynesia is consumed by the local population (2021 census – 279,890), which is also significantly more than the Cook Islands (15,342).

Infrastructure limitations are not the only factor to consider when making comparisons. While French Polynesia has not issued licenses for foreign fishing vessels since 2020, the fishing industry in French Polynesia is very sophisticated and local tax laws heavily subsidize fuel, ice, VAT exemptions for fishing gear, and air freight costs for the 20% of longline catch that is actually exported (94% to the United States and 4-5% of ULT (ultra-low temperature) frozen fish loins to France). France also offers investment subsidy tax benefits for locally built fishing vessels, which include 70% of the construction costs as a “tax investment incentive.” So for two new locally built ULT 22-meter longliners, investors only have to bear 30% of the construction costs. Infrastructure upgrades to fishing ports are all paid for by taxes and 0% French institutional development loans.

Besides being rich in fish, could the Cook Islands increase their tuna catch to some extent for local and tourist consumption, but you would need to rethink the arbitrary 50-mile commercial fishing ban in the Mara-e-Moana Act, find willing investors, provide massive subsidies, and put some really smart economic investment strategists into play, and I am not one of them.

Back to square one, back to the earlier arguments that there is a “resident” population of yellowfin tuna (still using quotation marks because I don’t recall any tuna scientist ever referring to a tuna population as resident) and that purse seine fishing in the northern Cooks Islands has “destroyed” the southern yellowfin population, again fueling the hysteria. I suggest that you need to subject these arguments to the same scientific scrutiny that is supposedly lacking as those cited by MMR, or by those who have made the comments to date and have long careers in offshore fisheries management.

• Barbara Hanchard is now semi-retired after 30 years of working in regional offshore fisheries policy. She holds a Masters degree in Marine Resource Management from the University of Tasmania and the Australian Maritime College. Her fisheries career began with the Department of Marine Resources, including 16 years with the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency in the Solomon Islands as coordinator for the negotiations of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention.