SPC/FFA in Country Visit

Pohnpei, FSM – The in-country visit was initially discussed last December between the SPC’s Head of the Oceanic Fisheries Programme (OFP) Graham Pilling, FFA Director of Fisheries Management Ludwig Kumoru and NORMA Consultant Eugene Pangelinan, with the plan to visit NORMA in person to facilitate an institutional review on the structure of its Fisheries Science Division (FSD).

Consultant Eugene further added, “discussions pertaining to data collection and handling for reporting purposes is timely. With the emerging technologies like electronic monitoring and reporting, it is imperative to continue addressing ongoing issues such as data gaps, low observer coverage, and national capacity building. It is also equally important to consider climate change in offshore fisheries sector considering it as a single threat to Tuna and FSM government revenue.”

But leading up to the informal sessions among SPC/FFA and NORMA, the NORMA team recognized the need to review the current structure, roles, and responsibilities not only for the FSD but also the Fisheries Compliance Division (FCD).

Limanman Helgenberger, Acting Executive Director at NORMA, said “it is a great initiative to identify overlapping and duplications among the divisions and to address them for better reporting and fit for purpose and NORMA is extremely appreciative to SPC/FFA to make this in-country visit possible.”

On the week of 8th of April, all Staff from both divisions met with SPC Graham and FFA’s Ludwig and Ueta Junior Faasili (FFA Fisheries Management Advisor) for an open dialogue on internal data collection, process and reporting obligations.

SPC’s Graham said, “this is a great opportunity to support NORMA through this review, sharing the SPC experiences in institutional review and future science needs, in order to enhance the divisional structure to ensure data management and science information is handled and provided in an efficient and effective manner.”

“The outcome of this in-country visit will be critical for NORMA and both SPC/FFA will be providing the recommendations and capacity development building to strengthen roles and structure be considered for 2024 and beyond,” said FFA’s Ludwig.

“This is a good opportunity especially for me,” said FFA’s Ueta, “as I’m assigned in the FFA Secretariat to collaborate with the FFA’s northern Pacific membership. Meeting with the technical NORMA folks is certainly an excellent start and I look forward to more closely working with them on tuna fisheries management matters in the future.