Bali hosts fishery conference

KUTA, Bali: The management and regulation of migratory fish resources would be one important topic discussed in the five-day international conference on fisheries, Minister of Fishery and Mariime Affairs Rokhmin Dahuri said here on Monday.

"This is an important issue because migratory fish, such as tuna, cannot be managed by one single country alone," he said at the Conference for the Establishment of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (PrepCom VI WCPFC).

The conference is being attended by 196 delegates from 24 countries.

Dahuri said participating countries should sit down together and develop a policy to ensure all could get the most benefit from these resources.

The conference would also consider the establishment of a fisheries commission. The commission would attempt to foster cooperation between countries in the Western and Central Pacific regions to manage fishery resources, he said.

"Indonesia would get several privileges in the (proposed) commission since we are one of the WCPFC's founding countries," Dahuri said, without going into details. --JP