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Supplementary Material 1
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Historical review of observer programmes in the Pacific Ocean
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Observer programmes in the western and central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) started 30 years ago when a few
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Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) government fisheries officers were placed aboard foreign fishing vessels
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operating in FSM waters in order to learn about the industry for domestic development. Since then, observer
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programmes have been developing in regional and national organisations. Observer programmes were
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originally created for scientific purpose but were soon recognised as being useful in (1) monitoring compliance
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with licensing agreements and restrictions on incidental catches and (2) providing reliable, detailed information
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on catch discarded at sea, catch and bycatch statistics at the species level and fishing effort.
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Deployment of observers in earnest began in the 1980’s with the Australian and New Zealand national
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programmes. The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) Programme started providing regional training
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courses and deploying observers on US fishing vessels under the US Treaty which started in 1987, has been
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renewed on two occasions and runs until 2013 (FFA 1994a). This programme became a model for several
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Pacific Island national programmes to develop upon so that observers could be deployed under their bilateral
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arrangements with foreign fleets and to a lesser extent on domestic fleets. From the mid 1990’s, the FFA
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brought into service and began managing an observer programme for another sub-regional fishing agreement
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the Federated States of Micronesia Arrangement (FFA 1994b). The Oceanic Fisheries Programme (OFP) of the
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Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) has worked alongside the FFA throughout this development and
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implemented its sub-regional observer programme in the early 1990’s. In 1994, with the help of United States
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National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), FFA and SPC joined forces to start providing in-country observer
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training for their members which has been the starting point of the redevelopment of national programmes in
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Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. With the continuous support of FFA
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and SPC, Pacific Island national observer programmes developed in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s in Cook
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Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, French Polynesia, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Palau, Tonga and Vanuatu, Philippines
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and Vietnam national observer programmes were established in the late 2000’s. The SPC/FFA Data Collection
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Committee (DCC) were formed in 1995 to achieve the harmonization of data collection forms and sampling
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protocols to ensure a high degree of consistency is maintained throughout the region. Data collected by the
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above-mentioned programmes can be centralised in one database at SPC. The currently FFA-based sub-
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regional programmes and the national observer programmes of the WCPO constitute the base of the Regional
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Observer Programme (ROP) established in 2007 by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission
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(WCPFC) Conservation and Management Measure 2007-01 (WCPFC 2007). This measure provides for gradual
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development of the ROP through to 2012 and ensures observer programmes comply with all the Commission
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standards. Observer programmes have been developing slowly in the distant-water-fishing-nations (DWFNs)
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since 1995 for Japan and in the 2000’s for China, Southern Korea, and Chinese Taipei. They cover their own
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fisheries at a low level in the WCPO at the moment but it is expected to grow and data should be available for
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the WCPFC as part of the ROP. CMM 2007-01 also requires that all commission members, cooperating non-
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members and participating territories (CCMs) achieve 5% coverage of the effort in each fishery under the
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jurisdiction of WCPFC by no later than 30 June 2012 (except for fishing vessels used exclusively for fresh fish
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north of 20° north latitude, troll and pole and line vessels used for fishing skipjack or albacore tuna, and small
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longline vessels, the size of which has not yet been agreed). The requirement however, for observer coverage
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on purse-seine fisheries has been subsequently increased to aid the implementation of conservation measures
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for bigeye and yellowfin tuna. CMM 2008-01 and CMM 2009-02 require 100% ROP observer coverage on
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purse-seine vessels from 1 January 2010 (WCPFC 2008, 2009). The two regional organisations, FFA and SPC,
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continue to work together to help develop the Pacific Island observer programme in a consistent manner. In
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2010, to insure quality across the various Pacific Island observer programmes, they implemented a Certification
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Management Committee to accredit organisations providing training for fisheries observers and to provide a
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Pacific Islands region-wide observer certification framework. Within this framework Pacific Islands develop the
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capacity to take over much of the training load in future years and standards and new sampling protocols
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continue to be developed, providing a progressive but consistent observer development programme. National
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and sub-regional observer programmes cover all the fisheries operating in the WCPO, i.e. domestic and DWFNs
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fleets, collecting data on purse seine, longline, pole-and-line and troll vessels.
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In the Central Pacific, in the late 1980s there was a rapid expansion of the Hawaii longline fishery for pelagic
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species, which raised serious concerns about the impact of longline fishing on the stocks of harvested fish but
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also on endangered species when reports of interactions with sea turtles emerged in the early 1990s (PIROP
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2011) and concerns of potential interactions close to shore with the Hawaiian monk seal were raised. These
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concerns resulted in the establishment of a mandatory observer programme implemented through an
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amendment to the pelagic fishery management plan established under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
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Conservation and Management Act in 1994 (http://www.fpir.noaa.gov/OBS/obs_index.html). The NMFS’
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Pacific Islands Regional Observer Programs (PIROP) operates in the waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands
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and the Territory of American Samoa. The Hawaii-based pelagic longline fishery targeting swordfish and tunas
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has been monitored since February 1994. In 2000, the PIROP significantly increased its observer coverage.
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Vessels targeting tunas (deep set) have mandatory observer coverage of 20%. Shallow set fishery targeting
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swordfish was closed in 2002 due to turtle interactions and resumed in 2004 with mandatory observer
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coverage of 100%. Observer programme on American Samoa-based pelagic longline vessels targeting tunas
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started in 2006 and now have mandatory observer coverage of 20%.
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In the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO) during the late 1960s, public awareness of the incidental mortality of
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dolphins in the purse-seine fishery for tunas prompted the enactment of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection
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Act of 1972, which led to the placement of observers aboard U.S.-flag purse-seine vessels since 1966 (Román-
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Verdesoto and Orozco-Zöller 2005). During the 1970s non-U.S. participation in the tuna purse-seine fishery
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increased, and an observer program conducted by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) was
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established in 1979, with an initial goal of 30% coverage of large purse seine vessels (greater than 363 metric
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tons fish-carrying capacity) of all flags. The Agreement for the Conservation of Dolphins established the
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International Dolphin Conservation Program (IDCP) in 1992 and the Agreement on the International Dolphin
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Conservation Program (AIDCP) in 1998 (IATTC 2010). Subsequently, observer programmes were established by
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governments of several of the nations that are currently major participants in the fishery: Mexico since the
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early 1990’s, Venezuela, Ecuador, European Union since the early 2000’s and Colombia, Panama and Nicaragua
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since the late 2000’s; while US observer programme ceased in 1994. The IATTC international observer
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programme and the above mentioned national observer programmes constitute the AIDCP on-board observer
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programme; all are coordinated by IATTC. Since 1992 the observer coverage of the trips on large vessels
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(greater than 363 metric tons fish-carrying capacity) by the combined IATTC and national observer programs
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has been nearly 100%. In 1993 IATTC observers began to collect data on the bycatches of species of animals
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other than mammals and commercially important tunas in order to evaluate the significance of these
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bycatches in this fishery. Currently, observer coverage within the industrial longline fisheries of the EPO is very
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low, with typically less than 1% of effort (Anderson 2009). Korea, Taiwan and China developed observer
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programmes for their distant-water fleets since early 2000’s. Spain reports observations mainly in 1998-2005
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but also some from 1990. In the Peruvian dolphinfish industrial longline fishery some observations were
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conducted specifically on seabird bycatches in the late 2000’s. An observer programme exists on the Chilean
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industrial pelagic longline fleet since 2001. No observer programmes are reported for the industrial longline
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fisheries of Ecuador and Japan. From 2003 fishing gear experiments and voluntary on-board observer
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programme have been implemented on artisanal longline fisheries of Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, EL
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Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Nicaragua, Peru and Chile to monitor the bycatches of turtles and
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other species. Very low levels of observation and non-random distribution of longline observer effort lead to
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severe restrictions in the ability to make estimates of bycatch. In 2011, IATTC agreed that each member and
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cooperating non-member shall ensure that, from 1 January 2013, at least 5% of the fishing effort made by its
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longline fishing vessels greater than 20 meters in overall length carry a scientific observer (IATTC 2011).
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Additional references used in supplementary material
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Anderson O (2009) Estimating Seabird Bycatch Rates in IATTC Industrial Longline Fisheries.
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http://www.iattc.org
FFA 1994a. Multilateral treaty on fisheries. Treaty on fisheries between the governments of certain Pacific
Islands States and the government of the United States of America. http://www.ffa.int
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FFA 1994b. The Federated States of Micronesia arrangement for regional fisheries access. http://www.ffa.int
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IATTC (2010) ANNUAL REPORT of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission 2008. Inter-American Tropical
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Tuna Commission La Jolla, USA. 101p. http://www.iattc.org
PIROP (2011) Hawaii longline observer program field manual. Manual version LM.09.11. Pacific Islands Regional
Office Observer Program, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. 187p. http://www.fpir.noaa.gov
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Román-Verdesoto M, Orozco-Zöller M (2005) Bycatches of sharks in the tuna purse-seine fishery of the Eastern
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Pacific Ocean reported by observers of the Inter-American Tropical tuna commission, 1993-2004.
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http://www.iattc.org
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