The Pacific Commons -- first high seas marine reserve?

Big-eye tuna caught on a longline.

The Western and Central Pacific Ocean is the world's largest tuna fishery. Over half of the tuna consumed worldwide is taken from this area. Rampant overfishing is destroying this fishery; relatively healthy just a few years ago. Today, two key Pacific species, Bigeye and Yellowfin could face collapse unless urgent action is taken.

Foreign ships take 80 percent of Pacific tuna. Distant water fishing fleets from Japan, China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, the US and the EU have fished out their own waters, are now plundering the Pacific. Those that bother to buy licenses pay only a fraction of the value of the catch. Pacific island countries only get around 5-6% of the value of the fish caught in their waters (around $1.2 billion) through access fees. It's not just about money. Pacific islanders depend on fish to live. Fish consumption is four times higher than the global average.

Because Pacific islands do not have enough money to protect their waters, pirate fishing is rife in the region. Globally pirates steal up to US$9 billion worth of fish from our seas, and from the plates of those who depend on them. In the Pacific illegal fishing steals fish worth 4 times more than the region earns in license fees.

It's not too late - urgent action can save Pacific tuna!

If we take urgent action now Pacific tuna can still be saved. Desperately needed measures include halving the number of tuna taken; banning transshipments (offload of catch) at sea, and creating a network of Marine Reserves in the international waters between national country waters - the "Pacific Commons"

Map of proposed Pacific marine reserves

The orange areas on the map are the proposed marine reserves. The grey areas are the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of the nations, and the green represent the islands themselves.

Protect the Pacific Commons

Greenpeace is calling for 40 percent of the world's oceans to be declared marine reserves. The Pacific Commons would be the first Marine Reserves ever in international waters and would represent a small but significant step towards achieving this goal. Pacific Island countries including Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Cook Islands have already expressed their support for the protection of the Pacific Commons.

The Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza travelled the area in 2008 challenging overfishing and highlighting the urgent need for protection of the Pacific Commons. We will take our findings to the next meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (the Tuna Commission) to demand the immediate closure of these unique areas.

Marine reserves are national parks at sea. They are protected from all fishing and extractive industries, providing a safe haven for marine life. If they are properly designed to cover crucial breeding and spawning grounds they also work for highly migratory species such as tuna. The concept of no-take marine reserves is not new to Pacific islanders. For thousands of years, Tabu (off-limit) areas were crucial to maintaining their healthy fisheries.

Declaring the Pacific Commons - Marine Reserves

Nearly a quarter of all tuna taken from the Pacific comes from international waters. Because these areas are far away from land and hard to monitor, they are all too often easy pickings for illegal fishing. Pirates often fish in national country waters and then claim that the catch came from international waters. They also use these areas to offload their catches, and refuel at sea. This makes it much easier to avoid regulation of how much they have caught, and how long they have been at sea for.

The map above outlines three key areas of the international waters that Greenpeace has identified as the Pacific Commons, and which we demand be closed off immediately.

These areas are key breeding grounds for tuna. They also contain unique ecosystems, including biologically rich undersea mountains, and endangered leatherback turtles.

By declaring them no-take marine reserves we protect them against pillage and destruction and secure a future for Pacific fisheries.

Protecting the Pacific Commons with marine reserves today, can save the Pacific from empty nets tomorrow.

Enlarge Image

Thousands of sharks and turtles wiped out for tinned tuna

John West, the UK’s largest seller of tinned tuna, has been ranked bottom of an environmentally-friendly tinned tuna league table published by Greenpeace today, due to the use of destructive fishing methods used to catch its tuna. New research shows that John West tinned tuna is often caught using ‘fish aggregation devices’, or FADs, responsible for wiping out thousands of sharks and turtles every year – including some rare and threatened species.

Enlarge Image

Twenty coal ships get new paint jobs in Australia

Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists painted coal ships waiting in a queue at Hay Point port in Queensland with messages saying "Stop coal expansion", "Barrier Reef Gone", "Ice caps gone" and "Rudd exporting CO2".

Enlarge Image

Greenpeace blockades Australian coal-fired power station

Greenpeace activists, including an ex-miner from the Hunter Valley, blockaded Australia's most polluting coal-fired power station to call for an Energy [R]evolution. Entering the plant in the early hours of the morning, 16 activists were able to lock themselves to the conveyors that distribute the coal.

Enlarge Image

Greenpeace occupies proposed Philippine coal station site

Greenpeace activists from different countries, including the crew of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior, and members of Responsible Ilonggos for Sustainable Energy (RISE) have established a "climate defenders camp" at the site of a proposed Philippines coal plant coal in Iloilo.

Enlarge Image

It's beginning to look a lot like World Oceans Day

It's that time of year again. People worldwide are scurrying about making last minute preparations for World Oceans Day on Sunday -- trimming the coral and hanging out their scuba socks. Father Neptune is checking his list of good children who have only eaten pole-caught sustainable fish all year, and hitching up his conch shell chariot's team of eight tiny seahorses. And we at Greenpeace are doing our part with ships in the Pacific Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, activists on land pressuring seafood suppliers and retailers to go sustainable, and, in the sky, Google Earth giving people a birds' eye view of the solution to saving our seas: a global network of marine reserves.

Greenpeace vessel attacked

World's largest tuna destroyer

Rainbow Warrior blocks coal shipment in Philippines (updated)

Pacific islands act to save tuna

Pirate of the Pacific busted by Greenpeace