The Minister for International Trade and Investment wants to see pacific island states and the rest of the world come together and do more to protect the fish stocks in pacific waters from overfishing by foreign fishing vessels. Minister Richard Maru, following the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, stated that the demands of the big influential foreign fishing nations, who are not prepared to remove harmful fisheries subsidies, will lead to overfishing which will eventually lead to the destruction of tuna and fisheries stocks right throughout the Pacific Region. “I reminded the WTO Director General and the Chair of the Fisheries Negotiations many times during our meetings at MC13 that fish is the only resource for many Pacific Island nations and we cannot allow anyone to destroy our fish,” said the minister. “The distant water fishing nations forget that they do not own the resources. 50 per cent of the world’s tuna is found in the Pacific Region- we are the custodians and we have a stewardship responsibility over these resources, not only for us, but our future generations and also for the world.” He said the whole fisheries negotiations has failed because the distant water fishing nations were not willing to compromise with pacific countries on what they felt was best for them under a win-win partnership, hence the next step now he suggested was for island nations to take ownership of fishing in their own waters as a way forward. “The real motives of the distant water fishing nations have been seen- they are not here to look after our future,” he said. “So, it is up to us to rise up, have our own fishing fleets, fish our own waters, and start processing our fish onshore so we can fish in ways that are sustainable and we can preserve our marine resources for our current generation and the generations to come.” Maru said this is something that Papua New Guinea (PNG) is now tapping into under his leadership as the Minister for International Trade and Investments. “For Papua New Guinea, we are negotiating for a Joint Venture with RD Corporation to start our own local fishing fleet. “There must come a point in time when we would not need other people to come and fish in our waters. We will embark on the domestication of our fishing industry from 2024 onwards with the proposed Joint Venture and PMIZ (Pacific Maritime Industrial Zone),” he added.