On the eve of crucial tuna catch quota negotiations in Samoa, Pacific Island Countries have signed into effect more measures aimed at exercising a lot more control over the southern albacore tuna fishery.

Called the Tokelau Arrangement, ministers, special envoys and chief government officials of Australia, Cook Islands, New Zealand, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu put pen to paper yesterday afternoon at a brief ceremony in the Faleata Sports Complex. The complex at the Apia suburb of Faleta is hosting the five day 11th session of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission starting tomorrow (Monday, December 1st).

Current chair of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency- Tokelau and Vanuatu have already signed the Tokelau Arrangement, and today's signing leaves eight more member countries of the FFA yet to sign. These are the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

"With your signatures ..., the Arrangement will come into force and we will go into the Commission tomorrow with a firm basis for requiring compatable measures to be set in place across the whole range of the fishery, including the high seas," said FFA chair and Ulu o Tokelau Faipule Kuresa Nasau.

"United, we hold the balance of power in this fishery," he added. "A healthy fishery contributes to a healthy economy but it also requires a healthy stock.

"Right now, albacore is being fished according to an objective that only supports overcapitalised foreign fishing fleets, particularly on the high seas."

The FFA believes the Tokelau Arrangement establishes the rights of Pacific nations to assert controls and sustainable management practice over a situation where the rules of fishing are not working in their interest.

As it stands, the WCPFC southern albacore measure only limits the number of vessels that can fish south of 20 degrees south. Pacific Island countries say however that this vessel limit is becoming increasingly meaningless as the number of hooks set by each vessel increases.

"It is a difficult path to travel before we see the full benefit," Ulu o Tokelau who is also his territory's Fisheries Minister warned. "But the signing of this Arrangement marks the turning point in an argument that has been taking place on and off for the past 25 years.

"It is the first time there has been a formal agreement between Pacific Island states on the management of this fishery and with this, we put our own house in order."

The 11th session of the WCPFC starts at 9am today.

 (Pareti is Group Editor-in-Chief of Islands Business magazine and his coverage of the 11th Session of the WCPFC in Samoa is made possible through funding support from the Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency.)