tuna management

The annual official meeting of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement begins in the Marshall Islands capital Majuro today.

The PNA controls the world's largest sustainable tuna purse-seine fishery.

Its meeting is expected to endorse recommendations for action by government ministers who will meet in Majuro in two months time.

Members will look at how to implement calls to ban high-sea bunkering of fishing vessels by requiring refuelling in ports or designated zones.

This week's Purse Seine Bigeye Tuna Management Workshop in Majuro was told commercial fishing boats caught over 2.8 million tons of tuna in 2014, an all-time record.

Most of those fish were caught by purse seiners.

The Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority scientist, Berry Muller, says the bigeye tuna catch at 161,299 tonnes was a five percent increase.

He says this maintains bigeye's "over-fished" state.