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The Parties to the Nauru Agreement Fisheries Officials have agreed to a range of new measures and minimum prices for fishing days under the Vessel Day Scheme.
PNA Officials were in Honiara this week for the thirty-third Annual PNA Officials Meeting.
Key to increasing the value of tuna is the PNA Vessel Day Scheme, which limits the number of days purse seine fishing vessels can fish per year, with each PNA member country having an allocation of days.
The current minimum price of a fishing day for foreign fishing vessels is 6-thousand US dollars and the Vessel Day Scheme is worth 240 million US dollars.
The officials agreed to recommend to Ministers a range of new minimum prices for days.
This week the PNA agreed on a total PNA-wide limit of 44-thousand 6-hundred and twenty-three days in 2014 and to freeze the days at that level for 2015 and 2016.
7-thousand 8-hundred and twenty-seven days will be taken off the top of this PNA Total Allowable Effort for allocation under the US Treaty.
While they tightened the Scheme this week, PNA also discussed improvements in technology that allows vessels to catch more per day and the need to review this under the various different arrangements.
SIBC News understands PNA Ministers will meet in mid 2014 to further discuss these issues and others.
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