The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) was established in 1979 when ten Pacific nations signed the FFA Convention. Since that time the membership of the FFA has increased to seventeen.
The FFA consists of the Forum Fisheries Committee (FFC) as the governing body comprising a representative from each
member Country and Territory; and the FFA Secretariat based in Honiara in the Solomon Islands. A Council of Ministers
meets on a biennial basis to provide oversight of regional fisheries matters.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
This Strategic Plan for the Regional Maritime Programme (RMP) of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) follows on from RMP's Three year strategic plan 2003 to 2005. It builds on
achievements of the previous plan period and sets out the direction of the Programme over the next five years (2006 to 2010).
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 14 p.
In general, leatherback turtles face serious threats at all life stages, both on the beaches where they nest and hatch and in the water where they spend most of their life time. Sea turtle eggs are collected for food, while in some areas juveniles and adults are hunted for their meat and oil. Habitats that are keys to their survival are rapidly being degraded due to coastal development. They are also killed in great numbers as incidental catch, or by catch, in fisheries.
Pacific island countries' are maritime nations with vast marine estates. They cover almost 30 million square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean and contain a high proportion of the largest and most valuable tuna fisheries in the world. The coral reefs, lagoons and deeper water habitats of the region are significant components of global tropical marine biodiversity. They form part of the fabric of Pacific cultures and society.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
ISBN/ISSN: 978-1-921285-04-2
The World's oceans play a crucial role for life on the planet.
Healthy seas and the services they provide are key to the future
development of mankind. Our seas are highly dynamic, structured and complex systems. The seafloor consists of vast shelves
and plains with huge mountains, canyons and trenches which
dwarf similar structures on land. Ocean currents transport water
masses many times larger than all rivers on Earth combined.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
ISBN/ISSN: 978-82-7701-048-9
GOOS is being implemented in the Pacific islands region by PacificGOOS, which was formed in Suva in 1998. In August 2000, in Apia, Samoa, PacificGOOS held a regional workshop on the development of a coastal Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) for the Pacific region. This workshop aimed to raise the level of awareness about PacificGOOS and its value for sustainable
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is the single financial mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to fund global projects that serve the objectives of the CBD1.
The GEF Secretariat has developed the Resource Allocation Framework (RAF) which is a nested set of formulas that determine the maximum potential allocation for each country to
The high seas lie beyond the 200 nautical mile limits that define the extent of national sovereignty by countries of the world. They cover 64% of the area of the oceans, and nearly half the surface of the planet. They are a global commons, under the stewardship of the United Nations Law of the Sea for the benefit of all nations. But human pressures on the high seas are increasing fast, and urgent action is needed to protect them from harm. Recent research shows that industrial fishing has
Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in working with local communities to establish marine protected areas to help conserve dwindling marine resources. Given the urgent
Coastal areas and oceans are complex and fragile environments with many different functions linked to public health, food security, and other economic and social benefits. These are also decisive elements in the alleviation of poverty. Healthy estuarine, near-shore and oceanic systems provide cultural heritage, food, building materials, traditional livelihoods, tourism opportunities, transportation routes, storm protection, organisms for biotechnology and many more benefits that are frequently overlooked or abused.
Available electronically
The objective of this project is to formalize the experiences,
outcomes and lessons learned from previous GEF projects,
as well as major non-GEF initiatives involving coral reefs and
associated ecosystems. The project aims to comprehensively
identify, analyze, and translate lessons into good practices
and information resources, and then disseminate this
information globally for use in future project design and
development. Based on its history of supporting coral reef
biodiversity, management and sustainable development,
Cheloniid turtles are characterised by a complicated life history: their eggs are laid on warm beaches; hatchling sex is determined temperature dependent sex determination during
embryonic development; lack of parental care; hatchlings are imprinted to the natal area; hatchlings disperse to feed on plankton in the pelagic environments followed by inshore
recruitment to feed on benthic organisms; immature turtles have slow growth and delayed maturation; adults migrate to breed in their respective natal area; they lay multiple clutches in
The purpose of this section is to provide a management context to reef restoration. We assume some familiarity with what coral reefs are. A key point we make is that reef restoration should be treated as just one option within an integrated coastal management (ICM) planning agenda for a stretch of coast. Too often, enthusiastic proponents of active restoration omit to consider the wider context and factors outside their control which may jeopardise their efforts.
Available online
Call Number: 551.6 EDW [EL]
The term Marine Protected Area (MPA) includes any area of the coast and ocean that is under management to control potentially destructive activities and conserve the biodiversity resources. Other terms used in the Pacific to describe such an area are
The Gilbert Islands are a part of the- Gilbert and Ellice
Islands Crown Colony of Great Britain, They lie in the
Pacific Ocean directly southeast of the Marshall Islands
and straddle the equator from 3 degrees North Latitude to
3 degrees South Latitude. All are low islands and most are
atolls. They are densely inhabited by Micronesian people
who are greatly dependent on the sea for food.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 259 p.
Rarotonga and Aitutaki form the summits of separate
volcanic masses rising from depths of 4000 m, at which depth
the cones are 45-55 km in diameter (Summerhayes and Kibblewh
1966, 1967).The lower slopes of the cones average 15-25
increasing to 30 in the upper 750 m and becoming very steep
the surface reef is approached. The Mauke-Aitutaki line of
islands is thought to be of early Tertiary age: the surface
volcanics are much eroded, with a subdued topography, or are
capped with limestones (Wood, 1967; Wood and Hay, 1970). On
The lagoon of Tarawa harbors the richest benthos documented for any Pacific atoll. The biota is strongly influenced by its setting in the equatorial upwelling zone and the unusual geomorphology of the atoll, with a submerged western rim, but largely closed and islet-strewn eastern and southern sides. As the metropolitan center of the Republic of Kiribati, Tarawa also has the largest human population of any Pacific atoll. These three attributes impose a strong influence on all aspects of the lagoon.
Knowledge of the fishermen of Tarawa Atoll, Kiribati concerning some key food fish in their waters is described and shown to be highly relevant to the management of these fish. The bonefish, Albula glossodonta, has been the most important shallow- water finfish in Tarawa catches. However, all but one of its known spawning runs has been eliminated according to fishermen and this last remaining run is showing signs of
The very productive lagoon fisheries of Tarawa atoll changed greatly in recent decades as human development and intensive harvesting increased. Tarawa typifies the increasingly common condition of resource depletion and marine community structure change with expanding human activities and population growth. Fisheries-dependent reports have documented the change in fisher landings for nearly two decades. A comparison of fisheries-independent data collected during 1992-93 with data collected in 1977 allowed for documentation of large changes in important finfish resources in Tarawa Lagoon.
This article provides a record of fish names from two locations in the central Pacific, these being the Vava'u Islands of Tonga, and Taveuni area in northern Fiji. The Handbook for the Collection of Fish Names in Pacific Languages by G.L. Barnett provided a method for the collection of these data during field work at the two places which culturally are part of West Polynesia. Interviews and discussions with fishers yielded a record of the Tongan language names and Fijian language names of approximately 50 fishes that occur in the waters of these islands.