THE 2025 Honiara Summit is to regulate, manage and end overfishing throughout the region and international. This was highlighted by United Nation Secretary-General (UNSG) Special Envoy for the Ocean, Peter Thomson at the official opening of the Honiara Summit at the Friendship Hall in East Honiara yesterday. “As you’ve heard many times this morning, we’ve gathered here to examine the progress of our implementation of SDG 14.4, our target of ensuring that we are sustainably looking after the world’s fish stocks.
“So just to repeat, SDG 14.4 calls upon us to effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, calls on us to effectively end illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices,” Thomson said. He said to restore fish stocks to the biological sustainable levels in the world the fisheries leaders must implement science-based management plans. Thomson said the summit on achieving sustainable fisheries is held in Honiara because over 50 per-cent of the world’s tuna stock is overseen by the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), which is headquartered in the Solomon Islands capital.
He said staying true to this spirit of environmental stewardship, “we must ask ourselves how we are faring in the implementation of SDG 14.4 in particular. That is a frank question with a complex (2:01) answer, an answer that will be elaborated on during the course of this summit.” “We’ve seen brave efforts in the establishment and expansion of marine protected areas around the world and have made commendable advances in combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing,” Thomson added.
