Pacific

Colin Tukuitonga was speaking as the regional agency marked its year of operations.

The US is a founding member and a significant funder of programmes undertaken by the SPC, which include extensive climate change activities.

But the Trump administration is full of climate change deniers and the president has said it is a hoax perpetrated by China.

The Antara news agency was reporting comments by the country's foreign minister Retno Marsudi on Thursday.

Ms Marsudi said Indonesia always discussed Palestine's independence in its bilateral talks with Pacific island countries and with those yet to recognise Palestine as a state.

Vanuatu recognised Palestine in 1989 soon after its Declaration of Independence in 1988.

Papua New Guinea followed in 1995.

The two countries are the only Pacific island countries listed among 137 states at the UN which recognise the State of Palestine.

The United States Geological Survey downgraded the quake from an initial measurement of magnitude 8. It struck some 47km west of Arawa on the north coast of Bougainville Island at a depth of 154km, the USGS reported.

An initial tsunami alert for several Pacific islands was wound back to cover just PNG and the neighbouring Solomon Islands and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center later said the tsunami threat had passed safely for those countries.

The Pacific tsunami warning centre said a widespread tsunami was possible for a number of Pacific nations, although not as far as New Zealand or Australia.

It said hazardous tsunami waves from the quake were possible within the next three hours along some coasts of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Vanuatu, and Indonesia as well as Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia.

The centre say any waves would be between 0.3m and 1m above tide level for the Solomons and Papua New Guinea, and less than 0.3m above normal tide levels elsewhere.

The meeting is one of several precursors to Japan's eighth Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting or PALM to be held in 2018.

Japan has been holding the summit every three years since 1997.

16 countries are expected to attend the meeting which will review progress since the last summit and prepare for the next one.

Speaking on behalf of the Pacific Islands Forum chair the Federated States of Micronesia's foreign secretary, Lorin Robert, said he was looking forward to discussing the Pacific's relations with Japan in the areas of climate change and ocean management.

Nafanua, Leilani and Emma are 14, 12 and 10-years-old respectively, and their dad Xavier Lui is teaching them the traditional skills of Pacific sea voyaging.

Emma says she likes seeing turtles, riding the bow of the va'a ("boat" in Samoan), and feeling connected to her culture.

"It uncovers the history and you can make your own history while you sail, go on that big boat and make your own," she says, gesturing to the Samoan Voyaging Society's double-hulled canoe, the Gaualofa.

International Maritime Organisation’s Head for Air Pollution and Energy, Edmund Hughes, says the most cost effective and energy efficient mode of mass cargo transport, shipping makes a vital contribution to international commerce and is a key pillar for the development of a sustainable global economy.

Hughes also stated that mandatory energy efficiency requirements for international shipping have been in force for nearly four years, leading to over 1900 ocean going ships being certified to the new requirements.

Albacore tuna stocks have dropped to a level which makes it uneconomic for the local industry to fish.

Foreign boats, especially those from China that receive fuel subsidies that the Pacific boats do not get, are still viable.

For the past decade they have been driving the Pacific fleet out of business.

Tonga and other FFA countries asked the Tuna Commission to set a target catch for albacore as the first step towards a harvest strategy that would put the fishery back on an economically sustainable footing.

The move to strengthen tracking of Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fishing vessels with another layer of information listing vessel masters, is hoping to gain traction amongst Tuna Commission members. 

 "At the moment we blacklist boats that have been caught illegally fishing, but as we all know, it is the people on board that are actually doing the wrong thing.  The Persons of Interest (POI) watch list will help detect vessel masters slipping through the current IUU vessel blacklist and going on to lead rogue fishing from another vessel", says FFA DG James Movick. 

Both Secretariats are committed to continue working together in partnership for the conservation of Pacific island wetlands and their ecosystems, which also have an important role in climate change and disaster risk reduction.

Coastal wetlands such as mangroves and coral reefs help to buffer the impacts of climate-related events such as storm surges and cyclones.

Inland wetlands also mitigate the impacts of natural disasters, both floods and droughts.