By Losirene Lacanivalu, Cook Islands News
Shane Jones Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Cook Islands can learn from the New Zealand Māori experience to develop their fishing industry and empower their people to participate, says New Zealand Minister for Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones.
Jones, who was visiting Rarotonga, is a former chairman of the Māori Fisheries Commission and said he was well aware of how challenging it is.
"Our vision for the Māori fishing rights was to involve more and more of our people in the actual business and activity of fishing. And predominantly that happens in the larger companies that the Māori tribes are shareholders of," Jones told Cook Islands News.
"We do face challenges bringing our young people, our rangatahi, (young people) forward to take on roles as either employees on the vessel, or eventually rising to the senior positions of captain of the vessel.
"And in the event that there was ever a serious level of interest to search for a template, the Rarotonga and Cook Island investors could maybe learn something from the Māori experience."
Jones' comments follow concerns raised by columnist and former lawyer Reuben Tylor about the impact of commercial fishing on local catches and the need for increased government support to develop the local fishing industry.
Tylor suggests following the model used by neighbouring French Polynesia, where purse seiners are not allowed. Instead, they licence around 70 smaller, locally-owned longline boats to fish in their waters.
Looking at Cook Islands fishing industry, Jones noted the country does not belong to the PNA.
The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) control the world's largest sustainable tuna purse seine fishery and its members are Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu plus Tokelau.
Jones explained that the PNA is a group of Pacific Island nations located in the tuna-rich areas around the equator. These nations primarily have territory within 10 degrees north and south of the equator.
"That, broadly speaking, is the El Dorado of pelagic fishing in the world, actually. And although Cooks does have fruitful fisheries up around Penrhyn and such areas, it's quite a risk-free option that they appear to have adopted."
Jones said he knew about these matters because for three years between 2014 and 2017, he was privileged to be the roving economic ambassador for Murray McCully, the former New Zealand Minister for Foreign Affairs.
"So, it's a trade-off. If you're running the fisheries portfolio for the government, do you settle upon international revenue from selling off fishing rights, or do you incentivise the creation of an industry to utilise the resource, employ people?
"And I think the latter has potential, but there are some trade-off decisions.
"It could lead to, in the short term, a reduction in revenue for the Crown, or for the government, in terms of immediate revenue that they no doubt receive through selling pelagic rights."
-This article was first published by Cook Islands News.
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