Pacific Fisheries Ministers, who met in Tuvalu last week, have announced what they call bold steps to ensure the sustainability of the region's tuna fishery.
Yellow Fin tuna Photo: RNZI
The Forum Fisheries Agency's meeting concluded that sustainability is the main issue facing the industry.
Over the next three years it will step up conservation and management measures aimed at reducing bycatch, combatting illegal, unlicensed and unregulated fishing, and restoring levels of bigeye tuna which is currently classed as overfished.
The FFA wants to increase the value of tuna rather than volume, by eliminating oversupply and targeting higher value products and markets.
It also wants to create 18,000 new jobs in the tuna industry by 2025, mostly through processing industries in Melanesia, but will also include crew, observers and fisheries management staff.