The Vessel Day Scheme (VDS) has helped pacific countries that joined the Party to Nauru Agreement (PNA) to maximise benefits acquired from tuna catches within their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
This was revealed during the Forum Fisheries Agency’s (FFA) Judicial Conference held in Honiara this week.
The Vessel Day Scheme (VDS) is a scheme where vessel owners can purchase and trade days fishing at sea in places subject to PNA.
The purpose of the VDS is to constrain and reduce catches of target tuna species, and increase the rate of return from fishing activities through access fees paid by Distant Water Fishing Nations (DWFN).
The total allocation of fishing days is set and apportioned between Pacific Island members for one-year periods up to three years in advance.
The minimum cost for each day under the VDS is US$8000.00.
The meeting this week revealed that VDS has help coastal states in the region to better manage their tuna on a sustainable level of harvesting, by lowering the possibility of DWFN to overfish in our waters.
The meeting also highlighted that 60% of global tuna catch is from the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO), thus it is of a significant issue to the region to strengthen their management frame work to ensure sustainability, and maximum economic returns from our resources.
The conference further alerted that Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing activities needs more commitment for the region to ensure appropriate measures are in place to control and monitor the works of fishing vessel in our Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ).
By AATAI JOHN
