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RNZ News
5 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Fisheries conservation and sustainability focus of seminar in Marshall Islands
Speaking to the opening of a National Ocean Symposium Tuesday, Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine called for communities throughout the Marshall Islands to get active in protecting their ocean resources for current and future generations. Photo: Giff Johnson Fisheries and marine resources are the driving force behind the economy, health and culture in the Marshall Islands and conservation and sustainable development are the focus of discussions at the three-day National Oceans Symposium that opened in Majuro on Tuesday. The symposium opened in the Marshall Islands against a backdrop of an innovative fisheries authority that is employing conservation and management tools to break into the tuna value chain in unprecedented ways. Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine in her keynote speech to the opening of the symposium underlined the importance of conserving and protecting ocean resources for today and future generations. She exhorted participants to take individual and community-level actions to keep the ocean environment healthy. "While the government can set policies, and experts can offer solutions, lasting change will only happen when our communities lead the way," President Heine said. "When we take ownership of our waters. When we blend the wisdom of our ancestors with the tools of today. When we value not just the resources in the ocean, but the responsibility that comes with them," she said. The recent purchase of a tuna "star loader," with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) FISH4ACP project, has been a game-changer for improving the speed and handling of tuna unloaded from purse seiners into freezer containers for later export to canneries. Photo: Jojo Kramer Playing an important role in helping the fisheries authority expand tuna value chain opportunities for the Marshall Islands is FISH4ACP, an initiative of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States aimed at making fisheries and aquaculture value chains in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific more productive and sustainable. Implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the program is funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. FISH4ACP is working in collaboration with the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority (MIMRA) to increase opportunities in the domestic tuna industry. During the Oceans event, FISH4ACP and MIMRA are showcasing these efforts. Dozens of elected leaders, women, youth, fishers and other community representatives are participating in the National Ocean Symposium. The National Ocean Symposium is focused on engaging with community leaders from remote islands to involve them in the dual government goals of conservation of fisheries resources while pursuing sustainable development opportunities. It is this nexus of ocean conservation and sustainable development of tuna and other marine resources that is guiding the Marshall Islands. The goal of MIMRA is to expand tuna operations domestically to increase jobs and revenue flow, as well as moving into other tuna value chain opportunities, including work to access international markets such as the European Union. This is where the FISH4ACP project has played an important role: Providing community education about jobs and opportunities in the commercial fisheries sector, supporting training programs to expand the skills of tuna industry workers, and co-funding a game-changing tuna loader that is expected to provide a significant boost to onshore unloading of frozen tuna for export. These FISH4ACP collaborative actions support MIMRA's aim to gain approval to export tuna and other marine products to the EU market. MIMRA has already taken the unprecedented step for a Pacific Island of breaking into the tuna supply market in the United States through a deal with the world's largest retail company Walmart. Over the past three years, tuna supplied by a Marshall Islands-based company has resulted in over 70 million cans of Walmart's house brand tuna being produced. Using an innovative conservation management system employed by the tuna organization Parties to the Nauru Agreement, which controls western Pacific waters where over half of the world's skipjack tuna is caught, MIMRA has met stringent chain of custody rules ensuring tuna supplied to Walmart is sustainably and legally caught. The key to sustaining the tuna supply agreement with Walmart "is to continue meeting the highest standards, including seafood safety, preventing illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, and crew safety on board fishing boats," said MIMRA Director Glen Joseph. "MIMRA, together with Parties to the Nauru Agreement members, is supporting expansion of tuna processing initiatives, with the goal of increasing the volume of tuna tonnage unloaded in PNA Member ports for processing and export, thereby increasing jobs and revenue generated for our islands," he said. FISH4ACP's program works to add value to these fisheries initiatives in the Marshall Islands. "Both the new tuna loader and the reefer container training are part of FISH4ACP's broader strategy that supports a sector that maintains a high-quality product while also ensuring environmental, economic and social sustainability," said Victoria Stansberry, FISH4ACP National Project Consultant in the Marshall Islands. "Proper handling of the tuna is crucial to quality control. The (tuna) loader allows for hygienic and efficient operations that encourages increased tuna landings. Reefer trainings are a way to equip local workers with the skills to confidently maintain the tuna cold chain and reduce post-harvest losses. Building local expertise also strengthens the workforce and strengthens the sector," she said. FISH4ACP has also supported the rollout of hygiene and food handling training programs for tuna processing plant workers. "FISH4ACP looks forward to continuing these trainings as the program enters its final year," said Stansberry. "A significant impact of these trainings that cannot be ignored is the employee reception from a work culture standpoint. It demonstrates to the local workforce and anyone considering joining that they are a valued part of the tuna industry and that there is value in investing in their performance," she said.
Scoop
06-06-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Marshall Islands Nuclear Legacy: Report Highlights Lack Of Health Research
A new report on the United States nuclear weapons testing legacy in the Marshall Islands highlights the lack of studies into important health concerns voiced by Marshallese for decades. Giff Johnson, Editor, Marshall Islands Journal / RNZ Pacific correspondent A new report on the United States nuclear weapons testing legacy in the Marshall Islands highlights the lack of studies into important health concerns voiced by Marshallese for decades that make it impossible to have a clear understanding of the impacts of the 67 nuclear weapons tests. 'The Legacy of US Nuclear Testing in the Marshall Islands,' a report by Dr. Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, was released late last month. The report was funded by Greenpeace Germany and is an outgrowth of the organization's flagship vessel, Rainbow Warrior III, visiting the Marshall Islands from March to April to recognize the 40th anniversary of the resettlement of the nuclear test-affected population of Rongelap Atoll. Dr Mahkijani said among the 'many troubling aspects' of the legacy is that the United States had concluded, in 1948, after three tests, that the Marshall Islands was not 'a suitable site for atomic experiments' because it did not meet the required meteorological criteria. 'Yet testing went on,' he said. 'Also notable has been the lack of systematic scientific attention to the accounts by many Marshallese of severe malformations and other adverse pregnancy outcomes like stillbirths. This was despite the documented fallout throughout the country and the fact that the potential for fallout to cause major birth defects has been known since the 1950s.' Makhijani highlights the point that, despite early documentation in the immediate aftermath of the 1954 Bravo hydrogen bomb test and numerous anecdotal reports from Marshallese women about miscarriages and still births, US government medical officials in charge of managing the nuclear test-related medical program in the Marshall Islands never systematically studied birth anomalies. The US deputy secretary of state in the Biden-Harris administration, Kurt Cambell, said that Washington, over decades, had committed billions of dollars to the damages and the rebuilding of the Marshall Islands. 'I think we understand that that history carries a heavy burden, and we are doing what we can to support the people in the [Compact of Free Association] states, including the Marshall Islands,' he told reporters at the Pacific Islands Forum leaders' meeting in Nuku'alofa last year. 'This is not a legacy that we seek to avoid. We have attempted to address it constructively with massive resources and a sustained commitment.' Among points outlined in the new report: Gamma radiation levels at Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, officially considered a 'very low exposure' atoll, were tens of times, and up to 300 times, more than background in the immediate aftermaths of the thermonuclear tests in the Castle series at Bikini Atoll in 1954. Thyroid doses in the so-called 'low exposure atolls' averaged 270 milligray (mGy), 60 percent more than the 50,000 people of Pripyat near Chernobyl who were evacuated (170 mGy) after the 1986 accident there, and roughly double the average thyroid exposures in the most exposed counties in the United States due to testing at the Nevada Test Site. Despite this, 'only a small fraction of the population has been officially recognized as exposed enough for screening and medical attention; even that came with its own downsides, including people being treated as experimental subjects,' the report said. 'In interviews and one 1980s country-wide survey, women have reported many adverse pregnancy outcomes,' said the report. 'They include stillbirths, a baby with part of the skull missing and 'the brain and the spinal cord fully exposed,' and a two-headed baby. Many of the babies with major birth defects died shortly after birth. 'Some who lived suffered very difficult lives, as did their families. Despite extensive personal testimony, no systematic country-wide scientific study of a possible relationship of adverse pregnancy outcomes to nuclear testing has been done. It is to be noted that awareness among US scientists of the potential for major birth defects due to radioactive fallout goes back to the 1950s. Hiroshima-Nagasaki survivor data has also provided evidence for this problem. 'The occurrence of stillbirths and major birth defects due to nuclear testing fallout in the Marshall Islands is scientifically plausible but no definitive statement is possible at the present time,' the report concluded. 'The nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands created a vast amount of fission products, including radioactive isotopes that cross the placenta, such as iodine-131 and tritium. Radiation exposure in the first trimester can cause early failed pregnancies, severe neurological damage, and other major birth defects. This makes it plausible that radiation exposure may have caused the kinds of adverse pregnancy outcomes that were experienced and reported. However, no definitive statement is possible in the absence of a detailed scientific assessment.' Scientists who traveled with the Rainbow Warrior III on its two-month visit to the Marshall Islands earlier this year collected samples from Enewetak, Bikini, Rongelap and other atolls for scientific study and evaluation.
