Ministerial Conference on
Environment and Development
in Asia and the Pacific 2000
Kitakyushu, Japan 31 August - 5 September 2000
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The Wellington Drift-net Convention (source: Uherbelau, V. and I. Cartwright. 1998) Prior to the 1980’s the majority of the catch of albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) had been taken by longline fishing vessels that supplied canneries in the region. In the 1980’s increasing fishing effort was expended in the surface fishery for juvenile albacore, using and drift-net methods. From 1988, the drift-net fishery expanded rapidly, and South Pacific countries began to express grave concern on the sustainability of the drift net fishery on the following grounds: (i) overall increased pressure on the stock and the associated danger of over-fishing; (ii) problems with significant by-catch of seabirds, non-target fish species and marine mammals; and (iii) the navigational hazard posed by drift-nets, and the potential for continued (ghost) fishing after loss. The FFA urged leaders to address the situation, and this resulted in the Tarawa Declaration made at the South Pacific Forum in July 1989. The declaration: (i) outlined the concerns of Forum countries; (ii) called on the international community to support a push to ban the drift-net-fishing method as a first step in the development of a management plan for albacore; and (iii) commended Korea for ceasing drift-net fishing and called on Japan and Taiwan to follow this example. Following this pressure, the Convention for the Prohibition of Fishing with Long Drift-nets in the South Pacific (Wellington Convention) was agreed and opened for signature in November 1989, entering into force in May 1991. Protocols I and II were adopted and opened for signature on 20 October 1990. The depository for the Convention is the Government of New Zealand. As a result of the Convention and growing international pressure, Japan ceased drift-net fishing in 1990, Taiwan following suit the next year. Largely though the co-operative action of FFA member countries and a subsequent UN resolution, the end of an environmentally unacceptable method of fishing in the region was achieved, and the first step taken towards the development of a multilateral management regime for albacore tuna. Uherbelau, V. and I. Cartwright. 1998. www.ffa.int
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