A regional fisheries expert says Pacific leaders aspirations for a quota based tuna management system is far fetched and raises more questions than answers.
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Pacific Islands Forum leaders have called for a review of tuna fisheries management in the region with suggestions of a move away from the Vessel Day Scheme to a New Zealand-led quota system.
But FFA fisheries advisor Francisco Blaha who was one of hundreds of industry delegates gathered this week in Fiji for the 5th Pacific Tuna Forum says the Pacific tuna fishery may be too complex for it to work.
"You need to have data, you need to have forward thinking, and you need to be able to preview all the potential scenarios that could happen. I work on issues around catch certification and I have counted eight movements through different jurisdictions for one consignment of fish. How do you incorporate something like that into a quota management system?"