Fisheries target 300 vessels annually

www.fijilive.com - December 01, 2009

Fiji wants to attract some 300 fishing vessels a year to dock at its ports and offload their catches in fish processing factories.

This aim, said Permanent Secretary for Fisheries, Viliame Naupoto, is one of the ministry’s pet projects as it embarks on a drive to revamp the fisheries sector.

“One of our pet projects next year has to do with the management of by-catch. By-catch is the species that fishing vessels catch alongside the target species, which is tuna. We have six fish processing factories here and these by-catches are the raw materials for their factories.

“The fishing boats come in and offload, the factories process the fish and export, so next year, that’s an area we are targeting,” Naupoto said.

He said the number of fishing vessels docking on Fiji ports had declined over the years and efforts would be put into bringing that back on track.

“There are around 1500 vessels fishing in Pacific waters. Fiji is very centrally located and if we can attract them to come to Fiji, offload their fish here and we provide the services - fuel, water, good connecting flights and our shipping lane - if we can attract 300 vessels in a year, they should bring in enough raw materials to feed our fish processors that would boost our fish exports,” Naupoto said.

He said among the reasons why there has been a decline in the number of fishing vessels docking in Fiji was the lack of attractiveness in what Fiji had to offer.

“It’s in how we go and buy the by-catch, it’s about the issuing of the licenses to those that are processing, to allow them to offload the by-catch so I think we just need to manage that policy a little bit better.

“Our central location is the big attraction. We just have to provide the necessary attraction and I think if we give the licenses to the processors, they will drive the price of the by-catch up.

“Because they will compete for the ships to buy from, and when the price goes up, I am sure the message is going to go out and the fishing vessels are going to come in,” Naupoto said.