Fisheries in the Pacific

Socioeconomic significance of fisheries in the Small Island Developing States…
Whether it is considered as a commodity or as a natural or cultural heritage,
during the last decade, fish and ocean in the Pacific have gained tremendous importance
for many actors inside and outside Oceania for two main reasons: food security
and environmental protection in the context of globalization (D’Arcy 2012). They
have also been assigned significant economic importance that is not only concerned
with fisheries but also with protection/valorization of the marine environment.
Food security, trade and income
Food security
The Small Island Developing States appeared in the 1992 Earth Summit as a group
of nations sharing similar and unique concerns. In particular, the PSIDS form an
organized group of developing countries of the Pacific region advocating their views
of the Pacific Ocean and its resources. 2 Fisheries and living marine resources are
essential for the lives, cultures and economies of the PSIDS’ inhabitants, especially
in the context of the limits on land-based development. These people are dependent
on ocean-related economic activities, such as fisheries and coastal tourism, for food,
employment and national income.
Access to fish, as their basic source of animal protein, is crucial for the PSIDS.
They are very dependent on their offshore resources and very vulnerable to food insecurity
(ADB 2007; Gillett 2009). Subsistence fisheries (fish caught for local
consumption rather than market sale) provide 50% to 90% of the animal protein
diet of the PSIDS’ populations living in rural settings and in remote islands. 3 But
this resource is threatened by the loss of coral reefs, which provide nutrients to fish
and other seafood, and by climate change effects such as ocean acidification and
rising water temperatures. It is also threatened by legal and illegal fishing within the
exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of the Pacific nation states. In the last decade, the
Pacific Community has declared bluefin, bigeye and yellowfin tuna to all be overfished
beyond sustainable levels (Allain et al. 2008; FFA 2008; Gillett 2008). 4 The total
harvest of tuna has increased by an average of 5% per year over the past 50 years.
2. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), PSIDS are Fiji,
Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Biodiversity issues are crucial for these PSIDS because they have
special connections with the ocean and sea.
3. For example, in French Polynesia, 58% of households consume their own catches in Tahiti and 85%
outside Tahiti (ISPF 2002).
4. In this volume, Allain et al. confirm that, according to the 2014 stock assessment, overfishing is
occurring on an overfished bigeye tuna stock. They also state that it is highly likely that the yellowfin
tuna stock is not experiencing overfishing and is not in an overfished state, even if yellowfin tuna is at
least fully exploited.
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