THE Pacific Islands is at the brink of losing their catch of one of the top four tuna species – the Bigeye tuna.
It was revealed in the SPC Fisheries Scientists recommendations to WCPFC11-13, that the status of the Bigeye stocks in the Pacific has gone down to just 16% of original stocks.
Bigeye tuna remains heavily exploited despite the fact that the stock is heavily over fished and substantially depleted.
The FFA Future of Fisheries Tuna Report Card 2016‘s Stock status traffic light graph also saw the Bigeye tuna placed on the Red light.
Are the Pacific Islands and its leaders losing the battle here?
It is believed that the WCPFC13 in Nadi, Fiji next week will see Fisheries delegation from the Pacific find a positive way forward to keep the harvest of Bigeye tuna in the region under the radar.
