Tuna sold at Honiara Market in the Solomon Islands.
World Tuna Day Statement
Dame Meg Taylor – Pacific Ocean Commissioner
Greetings to you all from our Blue Pacific.
World Tuna Day is always a milestone moment for the Blue Pacific Continent. Initially launched by our Forum members who are Parties to the Nauru Agreement a decade ago this day, World Tuna Day became a global celebration when the UN General Assembly added it to the list of global observance days, in December 2016.
It’s my pleasure to lend the voice of the Pacific Ocean Commissioner to this important celebration for our Pacific, as we celebrate the efforts of our Pacific nations and their continued diligence and work to sustainable manager our fisheries in support of our economic aspirations. I also take pride in the success that our region has had in management and conservation of our tuna fisheries garnered through passionate stewardship of this vital resource.
The balance we need to strike between harvesting for today, with care for tomorrow, is an ancient truth which today’s fisheries managers and leaders are well aware of. The Western and Central Pacific Ocean has world-leading conservation and management measures, carved out over decades by Pacific Islands Forum Members and those who fish in our seas. Forum Leaders are committed to ensuring the long-term sustainability and viability of the Blue Pacific’s fisheries resources, including through the Regional Fisheries Roadmap.
Our Forum Leaders have in recent weeks released a regional promise for the Ocean we share – the 2021 Forum Leaders Statement on the Ocean, I hope our people of the Blue Pacific and the globe will take the time to read and value the commitments they have made for this vast region, where every square kilometre of land is matched by more than nine square kilometres of water.
As custodians of the Ocean, we have a collective duty to watch over our ocean and its biodiversity to ensure it is still there for our children and the generations to come. The role of custodianship and duty of care is celebrated in a new children’s book I had the pleasure to launch entitled Our Sea of Islands, Our Blue Pacific, providing a message for tomorrow’s fisheries leaders, of the role of tuna fisheries in sustainable development.
Our tuna stocks are precious, feeding our communities, our economies and our hopes for sustainable development. But there are many threats. As the Ocean Commissioner, I am specifically concerned with the health and integrity of all life below water, in and beyond our national jurisdictions.
Tuna are a highly migratory species, travelling the currents through the world’s ocean to be fished in numbers where they are most abundant—our warm ocean waters of the Pacific.
The recent announcement by Japan of its decision to release more than one million tonnes of treated nuclear contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station into the Pacific Ocean will deeply compromise the Leaders Ocean Statement and impinge on the security of our Ocean and region as a nuclear free zone and further impact on the health, livelihoods and wellbeing of our Pacific peoples. We call on Japan to reconsider and defer its decision until further consultations and an independent and verifiable scientific assessment on the impacts of the discharge on the Pacific Ocean are undertaken.
We cannot be over-vigilant when it comes to possible radioactive contamination and we will continue to call for those like-minded partners to help us protect our Ocean from damaging acts affecting the global fish stocks that provide food security for our people and a large proportion of the global population.
Today as we celebrate the taste of tuna in our lives, let’s also remember we each play a role in collective and unified action- protecting our Ocean and our tuna stocks. The value we gain from healthy and sustainable tuna stocks, derive from a healthy and vibrant ocean ecosystem. Whether it is through sustainable commercial practices or consumer choices, together we can all contribute to making a change to ensure our children of the Blue Pacific will continue to celebrate our magnificent tuna fish today, tomorrow and into the future!
I wish you all a wonderful World Tuna Day.
Click Pacific Forum Leaders Ocean Statement 2021 to read more.
