Chapter I Intro & Objectives - SPREP

PHOENIX ISLANDS PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT PLAN
Chapter III. Background, 5. Fisheries Resources
Draft 1 March 2007
Langley (2003) reported that about 20 percent of total purse seine landings within the Kiribati
EEZ came from the Phoenix EEZ area. Most of this effort was by the U.S. purse seine fleet
under the Multi-lateral Treaty.
Langley (2003) noted that yellowfin accounted for a higher proportion of longline catch in
the Phoenix and Gilbert EEZ areas than in the Line Islands where bigeye represented the
highest proportion of longline catch. The Kiribati longline fishery began in the 1950’s. By
the mid-1960’s the Korean longline fleet entered the fishery and concentrated effort in the
Line and Phoenix EEZ area. Since the mid-1970’s, the Korean longline fleet has dominated
this fishery. Korean longline fishing effort from the Phoenix EEZ area from about 1980 to
2000 was about 20 percent of their total Kiribati EEZ effort.
Korean longline yellowfin catch rates were slightly higher in the Phoenix EEZ area, than in
the Line EEZ area (Langley 2003). Japanese longline yellowfin catch rates were higher in
those areas compared with the Korean longline fleet.
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