Recommendations to the 8th Regular Session of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC)
26–30 March 2012
Guam

The WCPFC aims to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of the fish stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO), an area covering 20 percent of the Earth’s surface and containing the world’s largest tuna fishery. CCMs have committed to valuing the unique social, economic, and geographic characteristics of the region without placing a disproportionate conservation burden on developing countries. While there are challenges in balancing the aspirations of developing coastal States with the historical and current fishing by distant-water fishing nations, there are still many opportunities to advance sustainable management.

Given WCPFC’s more modern and comprehensive mandate, CCMs have the ability to apply current “best practices” in fisheries management so that the tunas, sharks, and other species under its remit do not follow the same path as those managed by tuna RFMOs in other regions. In this regard, the Pew Environment Group encourages the WCPFC to adopt an effective CMM for tropical tunas that ends overfishing of bigeye and prevents overfishing of yellowfin and skipjack; adopt conservation measures to protect sharks; and strengthen controls against IUU fishing.