FISHERIES EMBARKED ON IMPLEMENTING VDS
A man selling fish at Honiara central market. Photo credit: Wikimedia.
The Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources has started implementing the Vessel Day Scheme (VDS) as part of its plan for this year.
VDS is a scheme where fishing vessels can purchase and trade fishing days at sea in places subject to the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA).
Director of Fisheries Edward Honiwala said VDS is a way of controlling the vessels’ fishing days and limiting the number of vessels operating in PNA waters.
He says it is an initiative to ensure parties involved can benefit from their marine resources in a manageable way.
“We control it by limiting the number of days and then allocating two of the number of fishing days to the fishing vessels or to the companies so that when they fish within our waters, they fish according to the number of days they are being allocated. The other one is at the moment with the use of the VDS, it increases the revenue collected by the Government from the VDS.”
As the authority responsible for Marine Resources, Mr Honiwala said the Ministry has to implement the VDS to ensure our marine resources are used sustainably.
“Management and conservation of our marine and fisheries resources in terms of inshore and offshore fisheries, the Ministry ensures that while we use our resources people they receive the maximum economic and social benefits from our resources. At the same time, our resources are utilised in a sustainable manner so basically, the Ministry’s core function is around those areas.”