Pacific

Fisheries meeting's outcome disappointing, says WWF

20:39 pm on 11 December 2015

WWF says this week's Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting was disappointing and has done little to protect threatened tuna stocks.

The meeting of the body responsible for the conservation of fish stocks in most of the region met in Bali for five days of exhaustive talks this week, which ended with mixed results.

Among the successes, members agreed on a target reference point for threatened species.

However there were several areas where the commission could not gain accord, with Pacific nations often squaring off against powerful distant water fishing countries.

Ian Campbell, a spokesperson for the conservation group WWF, says the commission couldn't agree to measures to protect from overfishing.

"There were some movements on some species, but some of the key ones like Pacific bluefin, again there's been no real movement to improve the management of those species. The Pacific bluefin tuna's only at about four percent of its actual biomass that's left. So yes, it's a bit of a disappointment to not get any movement on that yet again."