Chapter I Intro & Objectives - SPREP

PHOENIX ISLANDS PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT PLAN
Chapter III. Background, 5. Fisheries Resources
Draft 1 March 2007
Integrated Marine Management Ltd. (1993) reported that purse seine activities of the U.S.
fleet were equally spread between the Gilbert and Phoenix group, with little activity in the
Line Islands area.
For 1978 to 1990, tuna fishing effort in the Phoenix Islands generally followed the same
seasonal trend as catch (Tuna and Billfish Assessment Programme 1993). This suggested
that effort was directed towards area of higher CPUE. Korean longlining concentrated in the
Line and Phoenix Islands in the mid-1980s, but has spread throughout the Kiribati EEZ with
the decline in the Japanese longlining activities.
Lehodey et al (1997) examined the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in relationship to
the western equatorial Pacific warm pool. During ENSO events this warm water pool shifts
to the east and skipjack catches also shift to the east extending to the Phoenix Islands. This is
illustrated in Figure III-5.14 below.
Figure III-5.14. Distribution of skipjack tuna catches (tonnes) and mean sea surface
temperatures (SST, in 0 C) in the Pacific Ocean: (a) first half of 1989
(La Niña period), and (b) first half of 1992 (El Niño period).
(source: Lehodey 1997).
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