US vessel owners downbeat over lack of long-term tuna treaty with Pacific Islands

​South Pacific Tuna Company executives have reported that parties failed to agree on a long-term renewal of the 1987 South Pacific Tuna Treaty, which provides US purse seine vessels access to the Western and Central Pacific Ocean fisheries.

At the conclusion of the three-day event in Brisbane, Australia, members of US State Department, US Commerce and Industry did agree to accept an interim agreement for 2016, in coordination with representative members of the Pacific Island Parties (PIPs), Fisheries Forum Agency (FFA), and PNA Fisheries executives.

“It was a sad moment Wednesday night to witness the possible end to a 27-year agreement that means so much to people in the region,” said J. Douglas Hines, executive director of South Pacific Tuna Corporation.

“Members of the State Department did a tremendous job to bring a conclusion to a six-year process in which they have worked diligently over time. That said, all parties must have a desire to continue this relationship for this effort to be successful; that did not appear to be the case."

The PIPs committed to present to their leadership in the coming weeks a longer term plan with the hope to salvage the existing agreement of cooperation between the US and the Pacific Island Nations Fisheries agreement.

“We don’t know what the lack of a US Treaty arrangement will mean to the future of the US fleet, its processors who rely on our supply in Samoa, or the other canneries on the  Mainland, our service providers and employees. This remains a dramatic and challenging issue; our industry has a lot of work ahead of us," said Brian Hallman, executive director of the American Tunaboat Association.

According to South Pacific Tuna Corp leadership, there remains opportunity for the process to continue, but that opportunity is now in the hands of the Pacific Island Nations. “We do have some time,” said Hines, “but appears to be quickly slipping away.”

Terms of the 2016 agreement were not disclosed.

During the talks, US tuna fleet leaders told Undercurrent News a longstanding treaty between the United States and Pacific island nations could help in the global fight against human trafficking in the seafood sector.

“We believe that human trafficking related to fisheries is a problem that can best be resolved by government policies and actions,” Hallman told Undercurrent.

“This treaty … not only sets forth the terms of fishing access for the US fleet to the waters of the Pacific island countries, but is a vehicle for cooperation on all manner of fisheries matters,” he said.