Sustainability Performance of Tuna Fisheries. A Case Study of Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA)

Abstract or Introduction

Sustainable fishing in the Pacific Island nations is faced with a big problem because of illegal fishing and overfishing. The small island nations of the central Pacific have an awful lot of ocean and marine resources and face the problem of illegal fishing and overfishing in their waters. As a result, the eight island nations known as the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) countries signed an accord in 1982 to control an area of ocean about 40% bigger than the whole of Europe or the USA. Fishing is a major source of economic revenue for the PNA countries, and without it, they would not be able to earn revenue, and this would be a threat for the food security for the Pacific countries.

This case represents the kind of problem that Garrett Hardin referred to in a famous discussion of the "tragedy of the commons". In the case of the PNA countries, the commons are the ocean and its resources, where people get fish and other marine resources. People use their freedom of access to these commons to maximize the marine resources and the fish for their personal economic gains. They resort to unlawful fishing and overfishing which leads to exploitation and pollution of the oceans. In the worst case they can permanently damage the commons – the ‘tragedy’ that Hardin referred to. People need to be aware of the problem and they will consent if they understand the consequence of overfishing as much as they want by their own choice. Hardin thought that communities could not solve the problem and that private ownership or government control was needed. Elinor Ostrom, among others, found many cases where communities were able to solve the problem on their own. More importantly, Elinor Ostrom tried to understand why some people can solve the problem and why some people cannot solve the problem. Ostrom and others started research on the question of when and how the
‘tragedy of the commons’ problem can be solved.

Related to this, the PNA is an important case. The PNA countries faced the same 'tragedy of the commons' problem, but the PNA countries have been more successful in solving it, at least so far. Also, the PNA decided to stop the overfishing of bigeye tuna but instead the delegates discussed the limit of overfishing to be allowed instead of ending it.