Pacific Islands Laud Decade Of Cooperating In Monitoring Tuna Fisheries

The Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) stated that at the 7th Meeting of the Parties in Niue last week, fisheries officials from the 17 tuna-rich Pacific Island nations celebrated a decade of working together under the Niue Treaty Subsidiary Agreement (NTSA). The members looked at past achievements and reaffirmed their commitment to sustainable fisheries management to ensure that economic and social benefits continue to flow to Pacific communities. The cooperation has been successful in enhancing cross-border surveillance, increasing deployment of patrol vessels, and strengthening legal and operational frameworks to support compliance, to name a few achievements.

Poi Okesene, Niue’s Fisheries Minister, said: “To return to where it all began and mark 10 years of regional cooperation under the NTSA is a powerful reminder of our shared commitment to protecting our ocean resources together.” The NTSA is a part of the 1992 Niue Treaty, which was adopted on 2 November 2012 and came into force on 22 July 2014. It provides a legally binding framework for operational-level cooperation and enables Pacific Island Countries to jointly monitor, control, and surveillance their fisheries resources.