A recently released study on Pacific fisheries has credited effective monitoring and surveillace alongside improved data reporting for its finding that illegal fishing is far less of a problem than was stated in an earlier report from 2016 which estimated losses of over $US600 million a year.
Joining me for this week's talanoa series on Tuna is Francisco Blaha, an offshore fisheries advisor to the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority, who was part of the MRAG Asia Pacific independent study team commissioned by the Forum Fisheries Agency or the FFA.
Ni sa bula vinaka Francisco tell us more about Illegal Unreported and Unregulated fishing or IUU fishing in the Pacific and why these reports on the practices, the first in 2016 and the most recent one released at the end of last year are important?
Marshall Islands fisheries advisor Francisco Blaha on the deck of a purse seine fishing vessel in Majuro during tuna transshipment operations in this 2019 file photo. He is one of the contributors to the recently released study on IUU fishing in the western Pacific. Photo: Supplied
