KEY POINTS:
A group of Pacific countries have agreed to ban fishing vessels they sell licences to from fishing in the high seas between the exclusive economic zones of their countries.
The move came out of the Palau Nauru Agreement (PNA) group meeting in Palau this week and could lead to a full ban on fishing in some of the high-sea areas throughout the region.
Member countries of the PNA are the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific Oceans campaigner Lagi Toribau said the PNA agreement applied only to those fishing vessels that sought licences from the member countries to fish in their exclusive economic zones.
"It is a ban in their eyes."
Mr Toribau said the ban applied to two pockets of high seas.
One was the ocean area north of Papua New Guinea where its boundary was shared by the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau.
The boundary of the larger second area was shared by Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands.
The next move would be to win support for a high-seas ban on all fishing vessels.
Mr Toribau said that would be a decision for the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, which was established in 2004 and had jurisdiction over the high seas in the region.
"The commission needs to respect this bold but necessary move and adopt similar measures," he said.
Meanwhile, foreign fishing boats would be required to retain their full catches, regardless of whether they were tuna stock, and to carry observers on board at all times.
Fishing aggregation devices, used to intensify overfishing, would be banned in the third quarter of each year.
The agreement formalising the new measures would go into force on June 15, Mr Toribau said.
"This is a historical moment for the Pacific, its people, and the health of biodiversity of the seas ... We also commend the unwavering support of Cook Islands and Vanuatu in continuing to back the PNA measures and urge the remaining Forum Fisheries Agency member countries to stand together on this front."
Mr Toribau said distant fishing nations like Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China had resisted the protection of the region's tuna stocks.
But a scientific update had shown the PNA countries that yellowfin tuna had a high risk of overfishing and the bigeye tuna were already overfished.
The director of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, Asterio Takesy, commended the new measures.
"This is indeed a defining moment for fisheries conservation in our region and a giant step in the right direction for the sake of our present generation and generations to come."
