Balancing Sustainable Tuna Resource Management and Economic Development: Small Island Developing States Perspectives

In small island developing states (sids), sustainable fisheries are the overriding goal of balancing fisheries management for important resources such as tuna and economic development.1 However, reports over time have shown that fisheries management in general has continued to fail, sometimes spectacularly. Key factors that have hindered the effectiveness of fisheries management in sids include the combined effects of small fisheries departments, degradation of supporting ecosystems, heavy exploitation, environmental degradation,2 uncertainties of scientific information, unpredictable variations in the growth of fish stocks, heightened economic development demands, and error in the implementation of management measures.3 Determining sids’ perspectives on what sustainability entails and ways of balancing tuna resource management and economic development is difficult but necessary, as it determines the long-term sustainable use of fisheries resources such as tuna. Four species of tuna—albacore (Thunnus alalunga), bigeye (T. obesus), yellowfin (T. albacares), and skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis)—are important to Pacific sids due to their value, high abundance, and level of dependence. Tuna caught within national waters of fifteen Pacific sids that are members of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (ffa) region contributed approximately 1.5 million metric tonnes (valued at US$2.8 billion) of about