Vaihola, S.; Kininmonth, S. Ecosystem Management Policy Implications Based on Tonga Main Tuna Species Catch Data 2002–2018. Diversity2023, 15, 1042.
Vaihola, S.; Kininmonth, S. Ecosystem Management Policy Implications Based on Tonga Main Tuna Species Catch Data 2002–2018. Diversity 2023, 15, 1042.
Vaihola, S.; Kininmonth, S. Ecosystem Management Policy Implications Based on Tonga Main Tuna Species Catch Data 2002–2018. Diversity2023, 15, 1042.
Vaihola, S.; Kininmonth, S. Ecosystem Management Policy Implications Based on Tonga Main Tuna Species Catch Data 2002–2018. Diversity 2023, 15, 1042.
Abstract
Tuna species are an important resource to the people of the Pacific, particularly small island countries like Tonga, that have few alternative natural resources. These countries are dependent on this fishery for their nutrition, recreation, government revenue, employment, welfare and culture. Threatening these benefits, however, are global warming and climate uncertainties that affect the presence and distribution of tuna in the Pacific islands countries and territories. There-fore, one of the most important development goals for Tonga involves managing its tuna fish-eries in order to optimize these benefits within the context of climatic impacts. This paper has two main goals. Firstly, we discuss Tonga’s commitment to implement the existing tuna man-agement policies. This commitment permeates through a range of activities to monitoring catch regulations and regulate locally based foreign vessels to fish in the Economic Exclusive Zone of Tonga. This reflects the implementation of an information-based management framework namely, the Tonga National Tuna Fishery Management and Development Plan that is revised every five years. Secondly, the paper identifies key scientific research programs, which form the basis to design more informed future policies towards tuna management. These researches include : i) examining of the bathymetric features of the island nation’s fishing ground, ii) model-ling the spatio-temporal distribution of tuna and, iii) characterizing tuna habitats within an oceanic environment using biophysical oceanographic data within Geographic Information Sys-tem, and iv) impacts of climate change on tuna
Keywords
economically important species,; exclusive economic zones,; fisheries research,; national obligations,; tuna fisheries management
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Oceanography
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
