Climate Change Impact and Structural Reforms in Kiribati
KIRIBATI
States of America's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Fisheries Office
assessed that the WCP skipjack tuna's fishing rate in 2019 was sustainable (F/FMSY equal to 0.44) but
with low biomass (i.e., at risk of stock depletion, with B/BMSY equal to 0.88), while WCP yellowfin tuna
was assessed as sustainable (F/FMSY equal to 0.72) and its biomass above target (B/BMSY equal to
1.24) in 2014.
11.
However, there are gaps and weaknesses in the fishery management and conservation
measures, particularly on the high seas and possibly further away from coastal areas. The PNA
Office in its 2021 annual report noted that some distant water fishing nations which use these
waters are not supportive of the PNA's efforts to ensure effective high seas management
arrangements and are involved in systematic overfishing of their limits in the high seas, in
contravention of the WCPFC conservation and management measures. In the longer-term, climate
change is expected to generate a whole new set of challenges to the management of tuna stocks,
which is corroborated by the WCP's Scientific Committee's assessment of tuna spawning, pointing
to rising risks of spawning potential depletion. Similarly, region-based MTIs for Kiribati point to
some concerns about a decline in the mean trophic level of fishery catches in the initial (coastal) and
surrounding region of the Gilbert Islands while FIB indices increased. In line with the model of
Kleisner, Mansour and Pauly (2015), this decline may likely reflect either increased catchability over
time (from technological improvements) or the geographic expansion of fisheries to adjacent areas,
as higher trophic levels of newly accessed resources overwhelm fishing-down effects closer inshore.
In the case of the Phoenix Islands, on the other hand, MTI remained stable (light blue line in
Figure 2, panel 4.c) and the FIB increase appears to coincide with the establishment of the PIPA in
2008, reflecting lighter exploitation and expansion of biomass, pointing to an improved fishery
sustainability in the PIPA.
Figure 2. Kiribati: Sustainability of Tuna in WCP and Kiribati
1. Trajectories of Spawning Potential
Depletion
1.0
0.8
Albacore
Bigeye
1.9
03
3. Kobe Plot for Spawning Potential
2. Potential Spawning
Reduction from Fishing
Skipjack
3.0
End year Intermediate
●Start year
100 Pole-and-line
2.5
05
04
08
04
■ PS-unclassified
80
PS-associated
60
■ PS-free school
Miscellaneous
2.0
40-
02
02
90 Sule
median
20-
0.0
0.0
1960 1970 1900 1990 2000 2010 2020
1960 1970 1960 1990 2000 2010 2020
F/FMSY
1.5
0-
Bluefin
Skipjack
Yellowfin
1.0
10
1.0
1980 1990 2000 2010
0.8
03
Bigeye Tuna
Yellowfin
Bigeye
0.5
100
0.5
05
Longline T
Skipjack
Pole-and-line
80-
PS-associated
0.0
0.4
PS-free school
60
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
Other
02
40-
B/BMSY
00
00
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
1960 1970 1960 1990 2000 2010 2020
20
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND 47View entire presentation