SustainPacFish

The aim of the Oceanic Fisheries Management Project is to use ecosystem approaches to ensure the sustainable management of the living marine resources of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission area.

This includes the ongoing protection of stocks (populations) of tuna and other highly migratory oceanic animals while still allowing fishing. This is so populations remain sustainable environmentally and economically.

Previous OFMP projects have contributed to ensuring that the four major tuna stocks (Southern albacore, bigeye, skipjack and yellowfin) are deemed (in 2022) to be ‘biologically healthy’, meaning they are not overfished, and that overfishing is not occurring.

OFMP3 helps the Pacific small island developing states (SIDS) to manage their tuna stocks well. The SIDS seek to conserve the fisheries of the Pacific so they may always be a source of food. The countries of the region set the rules for fishing, including limits on how many fish can be taken. They also enforce the rules, which cover the SIDS, other countries in the region, and distant nations that fish in the region.

SustainPacFish holds the latest information on progress towards achieving these goals in the WCPO. You can learn about:

• tuna stocks and how they are managed
• the rules for catching fish
• the work of official observers and how we enforce compliance with the rules
• how we protect species not intended as part of the catch
• how the tuna industry can help improve island economies, and
• research on ecosystems and climate change, and how they affect the commercial fisheries.

SustainPacFish also has information on industrial tuna fishing in general, and brief descriptions of how OFMP3 supports the small island states of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO).

You can find the latest news on the WCPO tuna fisheries on the news hub TunaPacific, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.