No quota on Cook Islands for swordfish

There were a number of successful outcomes for the Cook Islands at the 6th Annual Session of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission held in Papeete from 7-11 December 2009.
Introduction of a Swordfish Conservation and Management Measure (CMM) – this measure was introduced to restrict catches and vessel numbers fishing for South Pacific Swordfish. Escalating numbers of vessels moving from other oceans, particularly of European Union Registered vessels has given rise to a concern about overfishing of this species.
It was agreed to ‘lock’ the numbers of vessels to the number in any one year between the period 2000-2005 and to cap the catches taken by the vessels to the amount caught in one year between 2000-2006.
These measures apply when fishing in the Convention Area south of 20 degrees S. There will be no fishing for swordfish in the area north of 20 degrees N. By April 2010, nations must nominate their maximum total catch of swordfish.
The good news is, the Cook Islands has been exempted from these limitations due to our right to develop our domestic fishery. The Cook Islands does not catch a large amount of swordfish nor do we have a large number of vessels catching swordfish. The highest number of vessels catching swordfish was in 2003 when 16 vessels were so engaged. Preliminary figures show only 11.90 metric tones of swordfish caught so far in 2009. The highest catch was in 2004 when over 134 tonnes was landed.
A further issue to be addressed is the increasing catches of shark by these vessels.
Vessel Monitoring System (VMS)
• Rules on access to sensitive high seas data have been agreed. Satellite based VMS coverage out to a 100nm buffer zone outside the Cook Islands EEZ is now possible. This will greatly improve surveillance capability through satellite tracking technology, as it effectively prevents vessels from ‘sneaking in’ to Cook Islands waters. These rules will also enable coverage of 95% of the HS pocket adjacent to the C.I. EEZ and French Polynesia, which is responsible for much of the IUU (illegal, unregulated and unreported) fishing which occurs in out waters;
• Following a request by the Cook Islands, the Commission approved inclusion of the Cook Islands EEZ in Commission VMS, which will allow Cooks to “see” all Commission vessels that enter our EEZ. Specific rules on this need to be agreed between Cooks and the Secretariat. New Zealand was the only other country to request this. A report on progress will be made to the Commission in 2010.
Closure of High Seas Pocket
• Despite strong and emotional interventions by the Cook Islands, with support from many other Pacific Islands countries, the Commission did not agree to close the eastern pocket between Cooks, Kiribati and French Polynesia. Unfortunately on the last day a proposal to close a very large proportion of high seas area was put forward by another member country, and the High Seas pocket closure got caught up in this discussion;
• However, it was agreed that the Cook Islands will submit a separate Conservation and Management Measure to the Commission at a sub-committee meeting in June (TCC) on High Seas Pocket Closure in 2010. The basis for the closure will be IUU issues. The French Territories and France gave strong backing for this.
The other noteworthy outcome was that our own Miss Pamela Maru, Data/Science Manager at Ministry of Marine Resources, was confirmed as Vice Chair of the Scientific Committee of WCPFC.
MMR media release

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