NELSON, (VOXY) —Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) is to host a delegation of Pacific island fisheries ministers and agency representatives next week (April 14).
Ministers from at least a dozen nations will spend the day in Nelson.
Participants have been invited from the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu. Along with the Heads of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, the Forum Fisheries Agency, The Pacific Island Forum Secretariat, and the Pacific Community.
The visit follows an invitation from Prime Minister John Key at the Pacific Fisheries forum last year, asking island nations to ‘examine New Zealand’s catch-based fisheries management systems’ (C-BFM).
The Ministers and senior officials will spend two days in Wellington exploring the C-BFM before visiting Talley’s in Nelson in the morning and spending the afternoon at NMIT. They will return to Wellington for the final day of the conference before returning home.
Shane Jones, Ambassador for Pacific Economic Development, is escorting the group.
A group of Pacific Fisheries Officer students currently studying at NMIT will meet Ministers. NMIT has trained 361 Pacific Fisheries Extension Officers since 1979 from 21 different countries in the Pacific.
NMIT’s International Maritime Institute of New Zealand will also show the Ministers its maritime and aquaculture training programmes and facilities, including the salmon hatchery and bridge and engine room simulation suites.
Nelson-based fishing companies control the largest share of New Zealand’s fishing quota. The region has the largest fishing fleet in the country and is the centre of aquaculture.
