PACIFIC REGION, MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012:  With just two weeks until fishing nations and Pacific Islands meet at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) meeting, the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) said it will not bow to pressure to open the high seas to foreign fishing.

INVITATION TO TENDER – WEBSITE DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT & SUPPORT

The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) is seeking submissions from suitable IT companies to provide website design and support services for domain www.pnatuna.com

Please consult document attached below for details and apply by December 1st 2012. 

MAJURO, MARSHALL ISLANDS, OCTOBER 2012: PNA observers and observer trainers have completed a Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) chain of custody training course to prepare them to monitor  the MSC chain of custody at sea.

In December 2011, PNA became the world’s largest certified sustainable tuna purse seine fishery when it was awarded certification by the MSC.

PORT MORESBY, PAPUA NEW GUINEA, OCTOBER 2012: The first formal social accountability standards training for the tuna processing industry was conducted in Port Moresby from 3-6 October 2012.

This training course and workshop, builds on previous support to industry in assessment of existing standards in each processing plant. The course covered diagnosis and implementation of the SAI SA8000 Standard for Social Accountability, ETI ethical trading initiative, ISO 26000 Guidelines on Corporate Social Responsibility, and SMETA, which is a tool for social accountability auditing.

PACIFIC REGION, WEDNESDAY 10 OCTOBER 2012: The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) announced Daniel Namosuaia of the Solomon Star newspaper as the winner of the Communicating Tuna Media Competition.

Robert Matau from Islands Business magazine was announced as runner up.

The winner will be provided with fully funded travel to Manila, Philippines in December 2012 to report on the annual meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Tuna Commission to the Pacific region.

Below is a summary of reports produced by participants in the recent Pew/PNA "Communicating Tuna" workshop and other entries to the PNA competition to send journalists producing the best reports on tuna to this year's Tuna Commission.

Got more reports to add to this summary? Please email details to pnatuna@pnatuna.com

REPORTS FROM PARTICIPANTS IN THE PEW/PNA COMMUNICATING TUNA MEDIA WORKSHOP

BERNADETTE CARREON – FREELANCE/PALAU

Please see attached document for those organisations or individuals interested in inputting submissions to the process of the surveillance audit. 

MAJURO, MARSHALL ISLANDS, MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2012: The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) office invites all journalists working in the PNA countries to submit their best stories about tuna to be in the running to win a chance to report from this year’s Tuna Commission meeting in December.

PORT VILA, VANUATU, AUGUST 2012: As Pacific Island countries get closer to signing a new treaty deal with the US, the PNA said the
agreement has been widely reported as more valuable than it actually is.

A statement from the US Embassy in Suva that the proposed deal was a dramatic increase in payments for fishing above what would normally be given by foreign fishing vessels was misleading PNA said.

PNA HOLD PRELIMINARY WORKSHOP ON DEVELOPMENT OF REFERENCE POINTS, AND HARVEST CONTROL RULES IN BUSAN, KOREA

The PNA is convening a workshop on the development of reference points  to manage tuna fisheries on 2 August in Busan, Korea. There are various values used to measure tuna stocks, known as reference points, which can be used in management of fisheries.